Editing Language family (section)

==Major language families==
{{Main|List of language families}}
Estimates of the number of language families in the world may vary widely. According to ''[[Ethnologue]]'' there are 7,151 [[living language|living human language]]s across 142 different language families.<ref>{{cite web|title=How many languages are there in the world?|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/how-many-languages |date=3 May 2016 |website=[[Ethnologue]] |language=en |access-date=26 March 2021}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=What are the largest language families? |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/largest-families |date=25 May 2019 |website=[[Ethnologue]] |language=en |access-date=3 March 2020}}</ref> [[Lyle Campbell]] (2019) identifies a total of 406 independent language families, including isolates.<ref name="Campbell 2019">{{cite journal |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |title=How many language families are there in the world? |journal=Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca "Julio de Urquijo" |publisher=UPV/EHU Press |volume=52 |issue=1/2 |date=2019-01-08 |issn=2444-2992 |doi=10.1387/asju.20195 |page=133|s2cid=166394477 |doi-access=free |hdl=10810/49565 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

''[[Ethnologue]]'' 27 (2024) lists the following families that contain at least 1% of the 7,164 known languages in the world:<ref name="families24">{{Cite web |date=2024-04-13 |title=Welcome to the 24th edition |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/browse/families/ |website=Ethnologue |language=en}}</ref>

#[[Niger-Congo languages|Niger–Congo]] (1,552 languages)
#[[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]] (1,256 languages)
#[[Trans–New Guinea languages|Trans–New Guinea]] (481 languages)
#[[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]] (458 languages)
#[[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] (454 languages)
#[[Australian Aboriginal languages|Australian]] (384 languages)
#[[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]] (382 languages)
#[[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]] (210 languages)
#[[Oto-Manguean languages|Otomanguean]] (179 languages)
#[[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] (167 languages)
#[[Kra-Dai languages|Kra-Dai]] (91 languages)
#[[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] (85 languages)
''[[Glottolog]]'' 5.0 (2024) lists the following as the largest families, of 7,788 languages (other than [[Sign language|sign languages]], [[Pidgin|pidgins]], and [[Unclassified language|unclassifiable languages]]):<ref>{{Cite web |title=Glottolog 5.0 - |url=https://glottolog.org/glottolog/family |access-date=2023-06-25 |website=glottolog.org}}</ref>
# [[Atlantic–Congo languages|Atlantic–Congo]] (1,410 languages) 
# [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]] (1,274 languages) 
# [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] (586 languages) 
# [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]] (514 languages)
# [[Afro-Asiatic languages|Afroasiatic]] (381 languages)
# Nuclear [[Trans–New Guinea languages|Trans–New Guinea]] (316 languages) 
# [[Pama-Nyungan languages|Pama–Nyungan]] (250 languages)
# [[Oto-Manguean languages|Otomanguean]] (181 languages)
# [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] (158 languages)
# [[Tai-Kadai languages|Tai–Kadai]] (95 languages)
# [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] (85 languages)
# [[Arawakan languages|Arawakan]] (77 languages)

Language counts can vary significantly depending on what is considered a dialect; for example [[Lyle Campbell]] counts only 27 Otomanguean languages, although he, ''Ethnologue'' and ''Glottolog'' also disagree as to which languages belong in the family.

Neither Ethnologue<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sign Language |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/subgroup/2/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=ethnologue.com}}</ref> nor Glottolog<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pseudo Family: Sign Language |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/sign1238 |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=glottolog.org}}</ref> list the language families of [[sign language]]s. Of sign language families, the [[Francosign languages|Francosign family]], hosting around 70 languages, is by far the largest and most widespread.

The largest five language families in terms of number of speakers (Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo and Austronesian) make up five-sixths (almost 83.3%) of the world’s population.<ref name=":1" />