Subgrouping in

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

is the division of a

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...

into its constituent branches. In standard

linguistic theory Theoretical linguistics is a term in linguistics which, like the related term general linguistics, can be understood in different ways. Both can be taken as a reference to theory of language, or the branch of linguistics which inquires into the n ...

, subgroupings are determined based on shared innovations between languages.

References

Greenberg, Joseph H. 1957. "The problem of linguistic subgroupings", in ''Essays in Linguistics''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. {{Ling-stub Language classification