1.4.2 Genetic classification of languages

　 Genetic (or genealogical) classification, one of the two main ways of classification, is based on the assumption that languages have diversified from a common ancestor. It uses early remains as evidence, and deductions are made to reconstruct the parent language when no written remains can be found. This approach has been widely used in Europe in the 19th century. The outcome is the establishment of language families, the names of which generally indicate their geographical distributions.

　 The Indo-European family is one of the largest families. Languages of this family are the ones that first spread throughout Europe and many parts of southern Asia. Their parent language ‘Proto-Indo-European' is believed to have been spoken before 3000 BC, and to have split up into different languages during the subsequent millennium. The family has now split up into nearly 10 divisions. English belongs to the West Germanic division (See Appendix II for the divisions of Indo-European family and the daughter languages).

　 Other language families and their geographical distributions are shown in Appendix I. Most of the world's languages can be grouped into families by the comparative methods. However, there are language isolates, the ones which have no known historical connection with any other language.