This article is a list of language families. This list only includes primary language families that are accepted by the current academic consensus in the field of linguistics; for language families that are not accepted by the current academic consensus in the field of linguistics, see the article " List of proposed language families".
The family relationships of sign languages are not well established due to a lagging in linguistic research, and many are isolates (cf. Wittmann 1991). [3]
Family Name | Location | Number of Languages |
---|---|---|
French Sign | Europe, the Americas, Francophone Africa, parts of Asia | Over 50 |
British Sign | United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa | 4–10 |
Arab Sign | Much of the Arab World | 6–10 |
Japanese Sign | Japan, Korea, Taiwan | 3 |
German Sign | Germany, Poland, Israel | 3 |
Swedish Sign | Sweden, Finland, Portugal | 3 |
Chinese Sign | China (including Hong Kong and Macau) | 2 |