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To Whom it may concern
I am sending this E-Mail for the purpose of clarifying certain statements made in the web site langfams_indoeuro.html with regard to the Illyrian language.
The first statement made in your website regarding the Illyrian language that I would like to comment on is "There are two dialects so different that they could be considered separate languages. Geg is spoken in the north of Albania and Kosovo. Tosk is spoken in southern Albania and north west Greece." While you are correct in stating that the northern dialect is call the Geg and the southern Tosk , you are highly erred and have angered me by stating that they are so different that "they can be considered separate languages" and have further angered me in bringing Greece in this separatist and schismatic description of the Albanian language. I highly recommend knowing the subject well before making statements such as the one above. I am a an Albanian from the furthest corner of the north and am well aquatint with Albanian speaking people, friends and in-laws from southern part of the country including northern western Epirus. And let me tell you, there is absolutely no difference, besides a slight dialect variations, between the language spoken in northrn Albania and the southrn Albania. I have never met anyone form the north who has had and has any difficulty in any way, shape or form in understanding a southerner nor southern understanding a northerner. In taking the Geg and Tosk dialects as being so different so as to be considered different languages you make up something that if true would be a great problem and a subject to great and ongoing discussions by the Albanian intellectuals, something that has not nor is seriously going on.
To give you an understanding of the ridiculousness of your statement, I will give you this analogy. Saying that the Geg and Tosk dialects are so different so as to be considered separate languages is the same as saying that the Northern US English dialect is so different to that used in the southern and western US that they could be considered different languages. Because of your erred statement regarding the Geg and the Tosk dialecs I find great difficulty in fully accepting your statement that the Albanian language has been heavily influenced by the Slavic languages, especially the Albanian language spoken within Albania. However, unlike you I will not make definitive statement about this because I cannot speak and don't know anything about any of the Slavic languages. But, what I will say is this, that upon having heard people speak the Slavic language on numerous occasions I cannot say that I in anyway have seen any similarity whatsoever between those languages and Albanian. So, I recommend that you either learn more of the subjects about which you make statements, especially when those statements touch on sensitive subjects, or make sure you are getting you information form competent sources.
I would like you if it is possible to respond to this E-Mail
To whom it may concern:
As an Aramaic or Syriac Assyrian speaking Christian I am very disappointed that you have mentioned the extinction of the Assyrian, Aramaic, and Syriac language. Assyrians are indigenous people of ancient Mesopotamia or Bet-Nahrain (In Syriac). Assyrians speak and write in the Aramaic or Sryiac language. The Syrian Orthodox Church, the Nestorian Church, Assyrian / Chaldean Church, Jacobite Church, use the Syriac liturgy. As you can see the Sryiac language is not extinct. Can you please make that correction as soon as possible.
KryssTal Reply: Thank you for your comments.
I know that Syriac is used in liturgy but so is Latin and Koine (New Testimant Greek) and Sanskrit is studied in India. But these languages are not used in everyday speach.
KryssTal Comment: After this email arrived I was spammed by several people all demanding that I change the status of Syriac from extinct.
Dear Sir:
I've just readed your interesting article The Latin Branch that talk about the Romance Languages, and I'd like to make a comment,the Galician is not a Portuguese dialect with Celtic influences spoken in the north west of Spain, like you have said, the Galician is one of the four languages recognized by the Spanish Gouvernment with the Spanish (castillian), Basque and Catalan.
It has Celtic influences because it's one of the called "seven celtics countries" with Ireland, the French Bretain, and others...
Thank you very much for your time.
KryssTal Reply: Thank you for your comments..
Obrigado / Gracias
Thank you; very useful and informative.
How about adding the Caucasian languages? Chechen, Cherkess, and the like?
KryssTal Reply: When I learn about them I will add them. Thank you for your comments.
Dear Kryss,
I am Billy, 25 years old. I figured I'd send you some material I've been working on concerning the language / race classifications.
KryssTal Reply: Thank you for your comments and for taking the time to write.
Unfortunately, I think we view the world from different perspectives. I do not accept the existance of a God; I do not accept the absolute truth of the Bible and neither do I have any problems with evolutionary ideas.
First of all, let me start by stating that there are 4 races / language groups of the human race (Black, White, Brown, and Multiracial / Creole).
KryssTal Reply: I think the genetic and linguistic evidence for this statement is lacking. All people are mixed racially unless they live in isolated communities totally separated from others. Also, race is more than colour.
Multiracial is actually a racial mixture of 2 or 3 of the 3 primary races of man, and Creole is the mixture of two or more languages.
KryssTal Reply: This idea of primary races has echos of ideas from Germany's Hitler period. A creole is a language that is derived from two or more languages. It is usually used IN ADDITION to a person's mother tongue. Most languages borrow from others they come into contact with but this is not a creole.
I am going to assume that most who read these followups are sort of familiar with history and the Bible.
KryssTal Reply: I am familiar with both but do not beleive that the Bible is a 100% account of history.
About 4,344 years ago, Yahweh (God) flooded this whole planet.
KryssTal Reply: I do not think the evidence exists for this statement.
Noah and 7 others survived on board the Ark (Noah and his wife; Noah's 3 sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and there wives).
KryssTal Reply: This is a Babylonian story plagarised by the Israelites. There is no evidence that this actually happend over the entire Earth.
A couple of centuries after the Great Flood when the population was probably 50 to 75,000 people, something happened that would change the world from then on. They all spoke the same language and were racially average as the billions were before the Flood. However, when the people as a whole rebelled and renounced their faith and loyalty in God, and decided to assert themselves as their own gods with pride and disobedience, God eliminated their uniform language into 3 language groups.
KryssTal Reply: This is a fairy story invented by the Bible writers to explain why different languages existed. Modern linguistics began to unravel the history and evolution of languages only in the last couple of hundred years.
At the time of the Confusion at the Tower of Babel, 3 groups or races of people were created also. Shem and his tribe of people (Semites) became the Brown (Morenoid) race, and their language Proto-Semitic or Southwest Asiatic. Ham and his tribe of people (Hamites) became the Black (Negroid) race, and their language group the Hamitic or Proto-Afro-Asiatic. Japheth and his tribe of people (Japhethites) became the White (Blancoid) race, and their language group the Japhetic or Proto-Indo-European. I use the Spanish term for Brown (Moreno). For White I use the Spanish term for White (Blanco) instead of Caucasoid or Caucasian due to the fact that Noah's Ark landed near the Caucasus area of modern Armenia, thus making all people of all races Caucasian. Anyway, there were 26 "sons" of Shem that corresponded to 26 tribes. There were 30 "sons" of Ham with corresponding tribes. There were 14 "sons" of Japheth with corresponding tribes. Here is a chart listing them all.
KryssTal Reply: This is all too simplistic. With respect, I think the idea of tribes doesn't correspond with the plethora of people in the world. This is more mythology than anthropology. Anglo Saxon, Slav, Hausa, or Dravidian are as mixed as Mongolian, Comanche or Turkish.
Shem (Morenoid/Brown) Race (Southwest Asiatics):
1) Elam -------- Elamites
2) Asshur ------ Assyrians
3) Arphaxad ---- Chaldeans
4) Shelah ------ Shelahites
5) Eber -------- Hebrews (Israelites)
6) Peleg ------- Pelasgians
7) Joktan ------ Joktanites
8) Almodad ----- Almodadites
9) Sheleph ----- Shelephites
10) Hazarmaveth - Hazarmavethites
11) Jerah ------- Jerahites
12) Hadoram ----- Adramites
13) Uzal -------- Uzalites
14) Diklah ------ Diklahites
15) Obal -------- Obalites
16) Abimael ----- Abimaelites
17) Sheba ------- Shebahites
18) Ophir ------- Ophirites
19) Havilah ----- Havilahites
20) Jobab ------- Jobarites
21) Lud --------- Lydians
22) Aram -------- Arameans (Syrians)
23) Uz ---------- Uzites
24) Hul --------- Hulites
25) Gether ------ Getherites
26) Mash -------- Mashites
Ham (Negroid/Black) Race (Afro-Asiatics):
1) Cush ----- Nubians (Ethiopians)
2) Seba ----- Sabaeans
3) Havilah -- Havilahites
4) Sabtah --- Sabtahites
5) Raamah --- Raamahites
6) Sheba ---- Shebahites
7) Dedan ---- Dedanites
8) Sabtecah - Sabtecahites
9) Nimrod --- Sumerians
10) Mizra ------Egyptians
These are a mixed collection of peoples, north and south.
11) Lud -------- Ludites
12) Anam ----- Anamites
13) Lehab ---- Libyans
Libyians are Arab - Berber: Libya is a COUNTRY rather than a race (like the Swiss or the USA)
14) Naphtuh -- Naphtuhites
15) Pathruh -- Pathruhsites
16) Casluh --- Philistines
17) Caphtor -- Caphtorites
18) Phut ----- Phutites
19) Canaan --- Canaanites
20) Sidon ---- Sidonians (Phoenicians)
21) Heth ----- Hittites (Chinese=Cathay)
The Hittites spoke an Indo-European language which is now extinct. No connection that I know of with the Chinese.
22) Jebus ---- Jebusites
23) Amor ----- Amorites
24) Girgash -- Girgashites
25) Huru ---- Hivites (Hurrians)
26) Ark ------ Arkites
27) Sin ------ Sinites (Chinese=Dravidians=Native Australians?)
28) Arvad ---- Arvadites
29) Zemar ---- Zemarites
30) Hamath --- Hamathites
Japheth (Blancoid / White) Race (Indo-Europeans):
1) Gomer ---- Cimmerians (Celts)
2) Ashkenaz - Saxons
3) Riphath -- Riphaeans (Paphlagonians=Carpathians)
4) Togarmah - Armenians
5) Magog ---- Tocharians
These are Indo-Europeans who migrated to China. This language is also extinct.
6) Madai ---- Madaeans (Medes=Persians=Aryans)
7) Javan ---- Ionians (Greeks)
There were many Greek cultures in the ancient world: Ionia, Sparta, Macedonia, etc.
8) Elishah -- Aeolians (Cretans=Minoans=Italics=Illyrians)
9) Tarshish - Tartessians
10) Kitt ----- Cyprians (also Cypriots)
Cypriots (of which my parents are examples) are not a separate people. Greeks and Turks live there.
11) Dodan ---- Dardanians
12) Tubal ---- Balts (Iberians)
13) Meshech -- Muscovites (Slavs)
14) Tiras ---- Thracians
There it is; the original 3 races, 3 language groups, and 70 proto-nations from which all other nations, languages, and dialects evolved from. In cases where Hamitic people in ancient history spoke a Semitic language (Canaanites) or vice versa, or a Hamitic people spoke a Japhetic language (Hittites), languages were either forced on or gradually supplanted indigenous languages.
KryssTal Reply: This is still too simplistic. You have not mentioned the Basque language, Burushaski (spoken in one valley in Kashmir), Quechua (Peru), and most of the language groups in Asia.
Also, evidence, lends credit that God induced the racial changes at Babel, too.
KryssTal Reply: There is no mention of this statement even in the Bible.
From the earliest civilizations found, extreme light and dark are already present, which seems to indicate that the racial changes weren't gradual and environmental as many suggest today.
KryssTal Reply: What have you got against changes? Do you consider yourself one of the pure ones?
Most of the Semites, all black-haired, dark-eyed, dark-skinned, stayed around Mesopotamia or migrated down into the Arabian peninsula except for the Pelasgians who migrated to northern Greece?, and the Lydians who migrated to Asia Minor. It must be added here that Jews are not a race but a religion. A Jew can be any race, but the original Jews were Brown.
KryssTal Reply: Jews are indeed a religion. Israel is a country. There are many languages spoken there since it is mostly a nation of immigrants the majority of whom arrived within the last 150 years. The majority of the Palestinians who have been there for longer. Islam and Christianity are also religions both derived from Judaism.
The Hamites, some with kinky hair and some with straight hair, mainly migrated down into Africa, over into Asia and Indonesia, though some stayed in Southwest Asia (Sumerians, Amorites, Dedanites, Sidonians, Philistines, and a few others) along with the Semites.
KryssTal Reply: These names are an attempt to fit the people of Asia into your tribal hypothesis.
The Japhethites, originally all blond-haired, mainly migrated to Europe and Russia, though some (Medes and Armenians) settled among the Semites, and others settled the coast of North Africa (Greeks), and a branch of the Medes called Aryans eventually settled India.
KryssTal Reply: What you are saying is that groups of people migrated because of the colour of their skin. All the whites went north while the blacks went south. I don't think I have ever encountered this idea before or seen any evidence for it.
The Multiracial race is a mixture of other races.
KryssTal Reply: All people are mixed. In the United Kingdom (my country), the Anglo Saxons displaced and mixed with Celts. Later Vikings raided and added their mix. The Normans arrived in 1066 bringing French language and genes. In the 17 century, there were many German immigrants.
These people also speak vast, age-old creole languages, too.
KryssTal Reply: This is an insult to these people to call their languages creoles. The European Peruvians refer to the Inca language (Quechua) as a dialect when it is in fact a distinct language in its own right!
The Mongoloids (Oriental Asians, many Indonesians, Native Americans, many Pacific Islanders) is the largest class of Multiracial people.
KryssTal Reply: Mongolian is an Altaic language related to Turkish, Uzbek and Korean. It is not a creole. Indonesians speak many languages belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian family. Javanese, Balinese, Sundanese are all written and distinct languages. The country as a whole speaks a national language called Indonesian which is virtually identical to Malay. The reason Malay and Indonesian are called different names is because Malaysia was a British colony while Indonesia was a Dutch colony.
The Mongoloids are mainly a mixture of the 2 Negroid tribes of the Sinites and Hittites; and the 1 Blancoid tribe of the Tocharians, though some Aryans were probably absorbed, too.
KryssTal Reply: This sounds like the sort of thing Hitler would have approved of.
The Hittites, after being defeated once and for all, migrated to China and met up with the Hittites.
KryssTal Reply: I don't understand this sentence.
China comes from Sin, and Cathay from Heth. The unique physical appearance of Mongoloids is not what people expect when thinking of Multiracial, but nevertheless, they are. The Mongoloids were coming into existence around 4,000 years ago.
KryssTal Reply: Archiological evidence would date the Chinese older than this but I suspect ling time periods are not agreeable to you. Large numbers of people in the USA have problems with evolution. This is not the case in Europe. We have a cultural difference here.
Their isolation from others is probably one reason for their physical appearance. Another Multiracial people is the Indians from India.
KryssTal Reply: "Indians from India" - what a great USA sentance. In the UK we would just say Indians. :) Seriously, India is a British invention. There are Punjabis, Gujeratis, Bengalis, Kashmiris and many other groups from North India. All are as mixed as anybody else. There languages are Indo European, derived from Sanskrit. Sanskrit is related to Latin, Greek, Perioan and the fore-runners of English.
They are a mixture of the Negroid Dravidians and the later Blancoid Aryans (Medes).
KryssTal Reply: The Dravidian languages of South India are a different family from Indo-European. Of course there has been mixing but that is true all over the world.
Some Mongoloid is also in there, too. Many Ural-Altaic people are also Multiracial people, though to a much lesser degree. Many Ural-Altaics are White, some are darker, and others are Mongoloid. The Ural-Altaics actually bridge the gap between the White race and Indo-European and the Multiracial Mongoloids and their creoles. As one crosses from west to east across Eurasia, the people gradually change from White to Mongoloid. The vast peoples of the Ural-Altaic, Mongoloid, South Africans, Islanders, etc., speak creole languages that have all but diverged beyond afiliation with others.
North Africa is another Multiracial people around 2,100 years or more in the making. The ancient North Africans, except for the Greek and Tartessians (who early on migrated up into Spain) peoples who have, ever since Babel, have settled the entire Mediterranean, including the North African coast, were Negroid just like the majority of Central and South Africans are today. Yes, the ancient Egyptians were Negroid, as were the Canaanites, Phoenicians, Sumerians, Hittites, Dravidians, etc. But, ever since the Roman times mainly, North Africa has become increasingly filled with White people (Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Teutons) and Brown people (Arabian Muslims -- mainly a mixture of most of the 26 Semitic tribes). Over the last 2,000 plus years, this has led to mixing of the races that has given North Africa a unique race and culture, though distinct White and Black people still do exist there. North Africa is so mixed between the Hamites and Semites, that their language has converged into the creole of Hamito-Semitic, wheras the Negroes of the other parts of Africa and Australia, etc., speak the diverged Hamitic proper.
Even many Southern Europeans are Multiracial, though to a much lesser extent than North Africa. Southern Europeans are still mainly White.
Much of Latin America (Mexico, South America, and the Carribbean) is also Multiracial. The Whites (mainly Spaniards Portuguese, and French) invaded those areas and many intermarried with the Native Americans and later the Blacks. However, Argentina and Brazil still have large populations of Whites and Blacks and Multiracials or Mongoloids.
KryssTal Reply: Native Americans, eh? They speak over 50 different language families. The Aztec language, Nahuatl is related to north American Comanche. The Inca language Quechua is related to Paraguay's Guarani. Guatemala's Quiche is related to Mexico's Yucateca. All these are distinct peoples yet you refer to them as Native Americans. You don't say "Native Europeans" or "Native Asians".
Because the White race could better adapt to the cooler climates of Europe and Russia, most Japhethites migrated there.
KryssTal Reply: Surely this is the wrong way around. Skin became paler because of a lack of strong sun.
Because the Black race could better adapt to the hotter climates of Africa and other equatorial regions, most Hamites migrated there.
KryssTal Reply: Ditto
Because the Browns were inbetween those extreme light and dark, they pretty much stayed around Mesopotamia and Arabia.
KryssTal Reply: With respect, this is silly.
The Semites were probably the least physically and linguistically altered at Babel since evidence suggests that the pre-Flood and pre-Babel language was a Semitic form of language.
More than ample evidence for the Tower of Babel exists than is currently taught in universities and the media.
KryssTal Reply: I don't think you would enjoy the UK. We do not even allow religious preaching on TV. Not that we have that many chanels! Less than 10% of the British even go to church. Our major TV stations are non commercial so that sponsors have little say over program content. Religion tends to be treated as a cultural aspect. Most programmes (we tend not to call them "shows") are bases on scientific principals. This is a cultural difference between our countries.
Sure, language divergence has taken over since the immediate confusion at Babel, but that don't mean that natural processes were at work forever all the way back to grunting and unga-bunga-ing. Studies show that humans need to be taught language, so who taught the first people? -- God did with Adam and Eve, some 6,000 years ago. After Babel, though, accents and dialects quickly broke off and formed daughter languages and on and on until we have some 7,000 language/dialects today. That Nostratic and Proto-World stuff; there is no evidence for it, but many believe it because they just don't want to accept the Bible, which actually fits the puzzle better than any Evolutionary theories could ever hope to. Shem, Ham, and Japheth have had their names preserved in the peoples of Europe, Asia, and Africa for millenia. Japheth = Iapetos, Pra-Japati, Sceaf, and Jupiter; Ham = Amun and Amon. Even Noah is preserved in No as in No-Amon (Noah-Ham) of Egypt. Their 70 offspring's names have also been preserved remarkably in history even to this day. Noah and his three sons were a historical reality, and that they peopled the entire world after the Flood, much evidence verifies this.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for your time and all. Please e-mail me with any comments/questions/etc. Much Abliged -- Billy
KryssTal Reply: I did enjoy this.
Hi,
I happened to stumble over your lE languages page, and since I'm a linguist working with these things, I was surprised to find Prussian placed under Germanic languages. There is only one Prussian language, called Old Prussian, which is an extinct member of the Baltic Branch.
KryssTal Reply: This is a language I know very little about.
With regard to Anglo-Saxon it ought to be mentioned that the descendant of its continental sister language Old Saxon is still alive in Northern Germany and the Eastern Netherlands under the name "Low Saxon". Also, Scots is a separate language and not an English dialect, so it ought to be mentioned too.
Flemish is just a dialect group of Dutch, sharing the written language with Netherlands Dutch. Purists use to call this common language "Netherlandic".
It's "Faroese", not "Faroes".
KryssTal Reply: OK
Cornish was revived and can't be called extinct anymore. Moldavian is a Romanian dialect and not a separate language. Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian are one and the same language, Serbo-Croatian. The rest is politics.
KryssTal Reply: Different alphabets though - same as Hindi and Urdu.
One Slavic language is lacking: Kashubian (NW Poland). Macedonian is *linguistically* a Bulgarian dialect. And Bulgarian is lacking, too, now we speak of it.
KryssTal Reply: Don't let the Macedonians hear you say that. I will add Kashubian.
Persian branch: This is usually called "Iranian", because Persian = Farsi.
KryssTal Reply: Thank you
And finally, it isn't a good idea to call the Indic branch "Sanskrit branch", because Sanskrit isn't the mother of all Indic languages but just one written form of Old Indic.
KryssTal Reply: That sounds reasonable.
I hope this was of some help.
KryssTal Reply: Thank you - lots to think about there.
WHY, THERE İS NOT CAUCASİAN LANGUAGES FAMİLY? AREN'T THEY LİVİNG İN THE WORLD?
KryssTal Reply: They are indeed living in the world but I don't know very much about them.
If that's the case you start to learn please...
KryssTal Reply: Please begin - what can you tell me? Can you list the languages in the Caucasian Family for me. What is the grammer like? Is Georgean included. I have seen its alphabet.
Dear Kryss
I don't know why I sent a protest message you ... I think this is disorder about web-site addresses... I looked your site yesterday and I noticed I have done a fault... I am to be sure of you think about I am a stupid... But , believe please ; I am not stupid , I am only very abstracted in those days.. I hope you excuse me...
KryssTal Reply: No problem, my friend
Dear Kryss
Thank you very much for the page that was very interesting for me. Unfortunately I could not open it at the second attempt and received the error message that site bandwith quota has been exceeded.
I have a comment or question on your statement that noun "water" (su) is irregular in Turkish. I could not figure it out by myself although my mother language is Turkish. By the way, I assume from your name that you are a Greek.
If correct then Ya tsu (or merhaba komshu) otherwise best regards,
KryssTal Reply: Teshekur - Efharisto.
Dear Kryss!
Thank you for your wonderful Page on language families. It presents a good overview on a complex topic.
KryssTal Reply: Thank you for your very kind comments.
But, there are a few mistakes and some information, I would like to point your attention to. Before I start, an cautionary remark: My knowledge of the English linguistic terms is not that secure, so that you might want to check up on any words, if you want to include any of the following information in your webpage.
1 It appears that the use of language came about independently ...
Some researchers claim this, others don't (difference between monoglottic and polyglottic theories on the phylogenesis of language). The porblem cannot be decided with linguistic means, since the realiability of reconstructions dating back further than 5000 years is not high enough for scientific stattements. As a matter of fact, it doesn't really matter for your topic. Language families show - as you pointed out - the relatedness of languages. If two languages are not part of the same language family, this means that they are unrelated or so distantly related that reconstruction is immpossible.
KryssTal Reply: Yes you are quite correct - your comments provide a good argument for me.
2 Celtic Branch
This branch is very small today (although not quite as small as the illyric branch), but it was one of the largest in Roman times spanning, the Brittish Isles, Porttugal, Spain, France, Parts of Germany and Parts of Asia Minor (I only know the German name of this language/people, i.e. Galather, but they are mentioned in the Bible, Letters from Paul). You also forgot to mention Gallego (Galician) in the North of Spain, which is originally a Celtic language today with a large proportion of Portuguese superstrata. You have included it in the Latin Branch.
KryssTal Reply: This is very interesting - I will investigate further. I agree with your comments about the Celtic languages once being over all of Europe.
3 Germanic Branch
This branch is divided in three parts. a) East-Germanic (died out, but the earliest Germanic documents are written in one of their languages, Gothic). b) West-Germanic: Mainly includes English, German and Dutch (with the varieties you mentioned). Frisian could be included in your list. This is a Westgermanic language spoken in the Netherland (Groningen area) and in the North of Germany. It is not a dialect of German, although many Germans might claim this, but a languagr of its own, closer related to English than to German. c) North-Germanic: Main Languages are the scandinavian languages you mentioned, but you might want to include Faroese, which is spoken on the Faroer islands and has a long literary tradition of ist own.
KryssTal Reply: I hope to include a chart of the Indo-European languages on my web site. These are two interesting language I would include. Frisian is the closest language to English.
3 Latin Branch
cf. Celtic Barnch
4 Slavic branch
There is a Slavic language spoken in the East of Germany (and only there) called Sorbian (this is _not_ Serbo-Croatian), you might also want to include it.
KryssTal Reply: I also know about this - it has two dialects.
5 There are other branches of Indo-European, which are now extinct, namely Tocharian and Hittite.
KryssTal Reply: I know about the Hittites, indeed I've visited their capital in Turkey. I don't know about the Tocharian branch - do you have more on this?
6 The Finnish word for Finland is Suomi
7 Altaic Family
Korean is remarkable, because it is the only language that developed an alphabetical script (Hangul) that is completely unrelated to the Phoenecian alphabet (the common parent of the Greek, Latin, Cyrrilic, runic, Armenian and Georgian and all of the Indian alphabets).
KryssTal Reply: Yes that is correct - I learned it when I was in Korea - it was developed by a king in the 15th Century.
8 Afro-Asiatic
Tigrinya is also one of the Ethiopian languages.
KryssTal Reply: yes - even if Tigre has gained independence.
9 Problem of "Language"
There is a problem with the definition of language. What is considered a language of its own, rests on two variables: distance of relatedness (called "abstand languages" and cultural factors "ausbau languages" - afak English linguists use also the German terms). If you consider only the distance of relatedness, you had to consider German and Dutch the same language (dialect continuum) or German as different languages (mutually unintelligible in the North and South of Germany). A similar thing happens to Scandinavian languages, but they complicate the whole thing even more, since e.g Norwegians claim that the can understand Danish (same language), but many Danish claim that they cannot understand Norwegian (different languages). The same thing happens between other scandinavian people.
KryssTal Reply: O yes, some Bulgarians consider Macedonian to be a dialect; Romanians consider Moldavian (Moldovan?) as a dialect. The Turks go further and call the Kurds, "Mountain Turks" !!
The same thing would happen, when a language has been strongly influenced by other languages: cf.
German: Laib (Brot)
English: loaf (of bread)
Finnish: leippa (bread)
So you have to consider cultural determinants as well, e.g. the existence of a literary tradition, attitudes of the speakers towards each other, history of the language concerned (loans; influence form other languages).
I hope, you find these infos useful.
KryssTal Reply: "this info" not "these infos"
yes thank you - I will change some of the text.
The language Ewe is not from Nigeria as was written here, but can be found in Benin Republic and Togo. Thanks.
KryssTal Reply: Thank you - I've changed it