Daughter language

In historical linguistics, a daughter language is a language descended from another language through a process of genetic descent.

Examples

• English is a daughter language of Proto-Germanic, which is a daughter language of Proto-Indo-European.

• Italian is a daughter language of (Vulgar) Latin, which is a daughter language of Proto-Indo-European.

• Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch, which is a daughter language of Proto-Germanic, which is a daughter language of Proto-Indo-European.

• Hindi is a daughter language of Sanskrit (Prakrit), which is a daughter language of Proto-Indo-European.

• Modern Hebrew is a daughter language of Biblical Hebrew, which is a daughter language of Canaanite, which is a daughter language of Proto-Semitic.

• Malayalam is a daughter language of Tamil, which is a daughter language of Tamil Dravidian which is a daughter language of Proto-Dravidian.

See also

• Protolanguage
• Comparative method
• Language families