language family

A language family is a group of languages that share a common origin or root. Think of it like a family tree: just as members of a family are related by ancestry, languages in the same family have evolved from a shared ancestral language. For example, Spanish, French, and Italian all belong to the Romance language family, which originated from Latin. Studying language families helps linguists understand how languages develop, spread, and influence each other over time, revealing insights about cultures and histories.