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This Amazing Tree That Shows How Languages Are Connected Will Change The Way You See Our World

Did you know that most of the different languages we speak today can actually be placed in only a couple of groups by their origin? This is what illustrator Minna Sundberg has captured in an elegant infographic of a language tree which reveals some fascinating ancestry links between the oldest languages.

Using the research data from Ethnologue, Minna has used a family tree metaphor to illustrate how all major European, and even plenty of Eastern languages can be grouped into Indo-European and Uralic families of languages. The whole image is dotted with languages, with bigger leaves representing those with the most native speakers. But even this detailed language family tree doesn’t cover the immense variety of languages out there: “Naturally, most tiny languages didn’t make it on the origins of language graph,” the artist explained to io9. “There’s literally hundreds of them in the Indo-European family alone and I could only fit so many on this page, so most sub-1 mil. speaker languages that don’t have the official status somewhere got the cut.”

More info: Minna Sundberg | Print (h/t: mental floss, demilked)

Bigger leaves represent more people using the language as their native tongue

Here’s a high-resolution image.

The European branch splits in three: Slavic, Romance and Germanic. A rather complicated relationship between the Slavic languages is visible

illustrated-linguistic-tree-languages-minna-sundberg-5

It also shows the Germanic roots of English language

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Surprisingly, unlike its Scandinavian neighbors, the Finnish language belongs to Uralic family

illustrated-linguistic-tree-languages-minna-sundberg-4

The Indo-Iranian group reveals the links between Hindi and Urdu as well as some regional Indian languages like Rajasthani

illustrated-linguistic-tree-languages-minna-sundberg-1

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What do you think ?

POST

John L 7 years ago

This is why we anthropologists call Caucasian people "Indo-European". All Indo-Europeans are 'so called' White people, even those living in India and Pakistan. They are just highly tanned, that's all. We still haven't officially nailed down what caused this migration all over Europe and the Middle East, but it appears that the sudden and Catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea, around 5,600BC, was the cause of this diasporia. And the flooding happened because the melting ice from the last glaciation finally began overflowing at the Bosphorus strait, separating the Med from the Black Sea. That, in a nutshell, is probably the cause of all this migration, and why the languages are linked to each other.

26points

Ztata 7 years ago

I don't understand, why all "throwed dog's" on John L, he said right opinions. Indoeuropeans far time ago were all with whites ancestry, even today they bearing that race dna, but in mix with south afro, and chineses. We all have some root's from neanderthals , from atlants!

6points

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It's Caturday 2.0 7 years ago

Oh, John. I really enjoyed your comments, and I'm saddened to hear about your hate speech. I currently work in the medical field, as well. If gender dysphoria is not only an acceptable diagnosis for the medical board, but also for notoriously difficult insurance companies, it should be more than good enough for the layman. Please desist from speaking on highly sensitive matters about vulnerable populations unless you have something constructive to contribute. I just don't see any reason to make negative comments about an issue that doesn't concern you.

2points

Florian Almagest 7 years ago

It's much more complicated. Thanks to Ancient DNA, we have been able to figure out that the original Indo-Europeans indeed lived north of the Black Sea and were rather swarthy, like Southern Europeans today. However, in Central Europe, they assimilated the much paler locals around 3000 BC, resulting in the Indo-European Corded Ware culture. This culture seems to be at least the origin of the Germanic and Balto-Slavic branches (and maybe others) and via the Sintashta culture, apparently the Indo-Iranian branch too, surprisingly. So the pale skin and light hair and eyes of the Northern Europeans does not come from the original Indo-Europeans, but from the indigenous Northern Europeans who were there before the IE expansion. The Indo-Iranians, however, mixed with local populations in Asia, explaining why apart from (in part) some isolated populations mainly in Afghanistan, they don't look Northern European anymore. So the dark skin is due to admixture with natives; India is a melting pot.

1point

Vinod Giri 5 years ago

Biggest disappointment is not showing Tamil in this. One of the TOP 10 oldest language.

0points

Fernando Zuccaretti 7 years ago

Being a passionate of anthropology never made anyone an anthropologist. You've got quite a few things wrong, but hey this is Bored Panda, I guess it's alright.

0points

Erate Deight 7 years ago

If You Ask Me, The Only "White" People Are Albinos.

0points

John Laidlaw 7 years ago

And Britain was separated from the Continent at the same time. The whole lot seems to have occurred quite quickly (geologically) when the Ice Dam holding the vast wasters of Lake Agassis (the black land prairies of Manitoba and Saskatchewan) broke, and let it flood out through Hudson's Strait. To this day, one can see, flying over the prairies in the right light conditions, the ripples that were the bottom of the lake, left high and dry - kilometer after kilometer of them through all the post-settlement farming. How far south into the USA that lake stretched, I couldn't say, but that land must have been severely depressed, like the High Coast area of Sweden, which is still recov ering at the rate of a centimetre a year.

0points

KK 7 years ago

John, I am astounded that you know so much about science and also usually have very kind opinions, but still decide to post links to hatesites against LGTB folks on other topics. I still have the screenshots here. I am carefully observing you. Don't think you're off the hook. And don't come with your usual "projection" reply. If you decide to work against my family and anyone that is not in a heterosexual monogamous relationship, really, I will fight you.

0points

Robert Lewis 7 years ago

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Olli Chilo 7 years ago

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Hans 7 years ago

This tree is really a nice summary, particularly as it shows how close some languages are, how far away others are. For example, it is always impressive to see how far away the Skandinavian languages are from Finnish – although if you hear these you can tell that they have nothing to do with each other. However, if would be great to have another figure to show language influence. If you think of English for instance, it has this Germanic origin, but in many areas latinized words are used. Often, you even have a word of Germanic origin and one of Latin origin to express the same thing, just either of the two is archaic and not widely used. Languages are a fascinating topic...

21points

Verner Carlberg 7 years ago

That's true. I'm Danish and have tutored Danish to two Fins. In Finland, they learn Swedish in primary school, but my students considered that torture and did their best to actually not learn it. If Fins study hard and keep repeating what they have already learned, then they can learn Danish relatively fast. Not as fast as English speakers, but still, quite fast. However, if they let their guard down, and decide they don't need to repeat what they learned months ago, they forget every rule (or rather the exceptions to the rules, which is the worst things about learning Danish). It's not that way with English speakers (English is actually closer to Danish than to German). Finnish has 15 (that's right, FIFTEEN) kasus, whereas Danish has 3, which I guess would make it very difficult for a Scandinavian or English speaker to learn. I know, that I don't have the guts to try.

4points

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Roxane Milko 7 years ago

I've fallen in love with Danish language and I must say many words really resemble those in English (and I'm having so much fun with pronouncing them). At first Danish words looked german-ish for me but they really aren't that similiar.

3points

Melinda G. Szabó 3 years ago

Why is it more impressive than the "distance" of the Hungarian language from the neighbor countries? Which is anyway, one of the most difficult language, in the World. Nobody can even understand, if you don't study it. And we have "something" to do with each other.

0points

PawWings 7 years ago

True !! ^^

0points

Rin Rin 7 years ago

Hans are you possibly finnish?

0points

Nga BuiHoang 7 years ago

What about Chinese?? Cantonese Korean Japanese Vietnamese

18points

Roxane Milko 7 years ago

Korean and Japanese are considered as "isolated languages" without clear origin. It is suspected that they come from the same language tree as Mongolian though.

20points

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John L 7 years ago

26points

Ztata 7 years ago

6points

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It's Caturday 2.0 7 years ago

2points

Florian Almagest 7 years ago

1point

Vinod Giri 5 years ago

Biggest disappointment is not showing Tamil in this. One of the TOP 10 oldest language.

0points

Fernando Zuccaretti 7 years ago

Being a passionate of anthropology never made anyone an anthropologist. You've got quite a few things wrong, but hey this is Bored Panda, I guess it's alright.

0points

Erate Deight 7 years ago

If You Ask Me, The Only "White" People Are Albinos.

0points

John Laidlaw 7 years ago

0points

KK 7 years ago

0points

Robert Lewis 7 years ago

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Olli Chilo 7 years ago

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Hans 7 years ago

21points

Verner Carlberg 7 years ago

4points

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Roxane Milko 7 years ago

3points

Melinda G. Szabó 3 years ago

0points

PawWings 7 years ago

True !! ^^

0points

Rin Rin 7 years ago

Hans are you possibly finnish?

0points

Nga BuiHoang 7 years ago

What about Chinese?? Cantonese Korean Japanese Vietnamese

18points

Roxane Milko 7 years ago

Korean and Japanese are considered as "isolated languages" without clear origin. It is suspected that they come from the same language tree as Mongolian though.

20points

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