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Macro-Pama–Nyungan Languages
Macro-Pama-Nyungan is an umbrella term used to refer to a proposed Australian Aboriginal languages, Indigenous Australian language family. It was coined by the Australian linguist Nicholas Evans (linguist), Nicholas Evans in his 1996 book ''Archaeology and linguistics: Aboriginal Australia in global perspective'', co-authored by Patrick McConvell. The term arose from Nicholas Evans (linguist), Evans' theory suggesting that two of the largest Indigenous Australian language families share a common origin, and should therefore be classified as a singular language family under "Macro-Pama-Nyungan". The two main families that Evans refers to are the Macro-Gunwinyguan languages, Macro-Gunwinyguan family from Northern Australia, and the most widespread Pama–Nyungan languages, Pama–Nyungan family that spans across mainland and Southern Australia. The different theories regarding Australian linguistic prehistory and Australian language family evolution are widely debated, therefore Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Language Family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics analogous to a family tree, or to phylogenetic trees of taxa used in evolutionary taxonomy. Linguists thus describe the ''daughter languages'' within a language family as being ''genetically related''. The divergence of a proto-language into daughter languages typically occurs through geographical separation, with different regional dialects of the proto-language undergoing different language changes and thus becoming distinct languages over time. One well-known example of a language family is the Romance languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, and many others, all of which are descended from Vulgar Latin.Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.)''Ethnologue: Languages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
