“Close” and “distant” language relatives
“Genetic relationships between languages” series: Part 2
Previously, we looked at how the modern languages that exist in the world today belong to different “language families” that have shared family histories.
The languages belonging to one language family are “genealogically related” to each other, sharing “genetic traits” of grammar, vocabulary, and sounds that they inherited from their common ancestors.
As examples, we saw that English belongs to the “Indo-European” language family and is related to most of the modern languages of Europe, whereas Cantonese belongs to the “Sino-Tibetan” language family and is related to other Chinese languages in this family such as Mandarin, Shanghainese, and Hokkien.
If we go a step further, we will see that, even though all the modern languages in the same family (i.e. “language relatives”) descended from the same ultimate ancestor, they can be “closely related” or “distantly related” to each other, just like biological relatives.
This is because the oldest ancestor language in a family is separated from its modern descendants by a long stretch of time--just like many generations separate a biological ancestor and his/her modern descendants. During this time, different “branches” formed within the family tree and developed separately, and in each “branch,” there were “sub-branches,” and so on.
These “branches” and “sub-branches” throughout the history of a language family lead to many modern descendant languages. This is similar to how a biological family tree has branches and sub-branches, and an ancient biological ancestor has many different living offspring alive today.
In simplified terms, modern descendant languages within the same “branch” are “closely related” because they share more “recent” ancestors in the family tree. In biological terms, we can compare these closely related languages to “cousins with the same grandparents.”
Modern descendant languages in different “branches” of a language family tree are “distantly related” because they share more “distant ancestors” from further back in the family history. In biological terms, we can compare these languages to “distant cousins with the same great-great-great-great-grandparents.”
For example, English, German, Swedish, French, and Russian are all modern European languages belonging to the “Indo-European Language Family.” This means they are all relatives with the same ultimate ancestor.
If we consider these languages from the perspective of English, however, German and Swedish are closer relatives than French and Russian because English, German, and Swedish are in the same “branch” of the family tree, one called “Germanic Languages,” whereas French and Russian are in other branches (“Romance Languages” and “Slavic Languages” respectively).
In other words, English, German, and Swedish, close relatives in the “Germanic Languages” branch of the “Indo-European” family, descended from a common intermediate ancestor not too long ago in terms of the family history. English, French, and Russian, on the other hand, only share a common distant ancestor from a long time ago in the family history, before their respective branches separated from one another.
As we have previously mentioned, language families also pass down “genetic traits” to descendant languages like biological families do. As we can expect, “close language relatives,” like close cousins, have more shared inherited traits, while “distant language relatives,” like distant cousins, have fewer shared inherited traits.
When we are talking about languages, the “genes” that are passed down from ancestor languages to descendant languages include “traits” of grammar, vocabulary, and sounds.
Next, we will explore what the “genetic traits” that “closely” and “distantly” related languages share might look like in actual language families.
語言之間的「近親」和「遠親」關係
語言之間的「遺傳關係」系列：第 2篇
上一篇，我們討論了世界上現存的現代語言，其實都源自有共同家族歷史的不同「語言家族」。
那些在同一語言家族中的有「親戚關係」的語言，都會繼承了共同祖先的文法、詞彙及發音的「遺傳特徵」。
例如，英文屬於「印歐語系」的語言家族，與多數歐洲的現代語言都有「親戚關係」; 廣東話則屬於「漢藏語系」的語言家族，與其他諸如普通話、上海話和福建話等中文語言有「親戚關係」。
如果再進一步探索，我們更會發現即使在同一語言家族中的所有現代語言（即那些「語言親戚」）全都源於同一個最遠古的祖先，但它們也像我們人類的親戚一樣，有「近親」和「遠親」之分。
這是因為一個家族中最古老的祖先語言已經和它當今的後代分開了很長的時間，正如人類的祖先和其後裔也相差了很多世代。期間，家族會在發展歷史中漸漸長出「分枝」，而各個「分枝」又會自行發展出「分分支」。
這些語言家族歷史中的「分枝」和「分分枝」，造成了大量的現代語言後裔。這與我們人類家族樹的「分枝」和「分分枝」相似，人類的遠古祖先同樣有許多不同的後代存活至今。
簡單來說，在同一「分枝」上的所有現代語言後裔都可以說有「近親」關係，因為它們都繼承自比較「近期」的祖先。我們可以將這些近親語言想像為，例如，人類親屬關係中「擁有相同祖父母的表親」。
在語言家族樹中不同「分枝」上的現代語言後裔都是彼此的「遠親」，因為它們在家族歷史中只是有同樣的「遠古祖先」。我們可以將這些語言想像為，例如，「擁有相同曾曾曾曾曾祖父母的遠房親戚」。
例如英文、德文、瑞典文、法文和俄文都是屬於「印歐語系」中的現代歐洲語言，這也代表它們都是擁有共同始祖的親戚。
然而對英文而言，德文和瑞典文會比法文和俄文更近親一點，因為英文、德文、瑞典文都在同一個稱為「日耳曼語系」（Germanic Languages）的分枝上，而法文和俄文則是其他分枝 （分別為「羅馬語系（Romance Languages）」和「斯拉夫語系（Slavic Languages)」）的成員。
換言之，英文、德文和瑞典文是「印歐語系」家族中的「日耳曼語系」分支的近親，承傳自對整個家族歷史而言比較不久遠的一個共同祖先。相反，英文與法文及俄文在家族歷史上只擁有一個共同的遠古祖先，它們各自是不同分枝的現代成員。
我們在上一篇文章中提到，語言家族也會像人類的家族一樣，將某些「遺傳特徵」遺傳給自己的後代。可想而知，語言上的「近親」也會像我們和自己的表親一樣，擁有較多相同的遺傳特徵；而關係比較像遠房表親的語言「遠親」，所共有的遺傳特徵也會相對較少。
從祖先語言傳播至後代語言的「基因」中，包括了文法、詞彙及發音等「遺傳特徵」。
下一篇，我們會探討那些語言「近親」和「遠親」的共同「遺傳特徵」在家族語言中的實際面貌。