language family; family of languages
Linguistics term for a group of languages descended from a common ancestor.
Which language family does Japanese belong to?
The Indo-European language family includes many languages.
Semitic languages
Austronesian languages
Japonic languages
Arawakan languages
Afroasiatic languages
Austronesian languages
Compound of 語 (go, 'language') and 族 (zoku, 'tribe, family'). The term is a modern coinage for the linguistic concept of a language family.