Daughter language
In historical linguistics, a daughter language is a language descended from another language through a process of genetic descent. Strictly speaking, the metaphor of the mother-daughter relationship can lead to misconceptualization of language history, as daughter languages are normally direct continuations of earlier stages, not separate entities in any way "born" to a parent who eventually dies.
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.
- Chavacano is a daughter language of Spanish, which is a daughter language of (Vulgar) Latin, 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.
- Norwegian Bokmål is a daughter language of Danish, which is a daughter language of Old Norse, which is a daughter language of Proto-Germanic, which is a daughter language of Proto-Indo-European.
- Tajik is a daughter language of Persian, which is a daughter language of Proto-Indo-European.
See also
- Protolanguage
- Comparative method
- Language families