Macrofamily

A macrofamily (also called a superfamily or superphylum) is a term often used in historical linguistics to refer to a hypothetical higher order grouping of languages, composed of multiple language families and/or isolates. Some scholars, such as Campbell, view this designation as superfluous or redundant, preferring "language family" for those classifications for which there is consensus and "distant genetic relationship" for those which lack consensus, whether due to lack of documentation, lack of scholarship, or time depth thought by linguists too great for accurate reconstruction, but which have not been outright rejected or definitely discredited. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Examples of proposed macro-families ^{[1] [4]} range from relatively recent such as East Asian, Macro-Jê, Macro-Waikurúan, Macro-Mayan, Macro-Siouan, Penutian, Dené–Yeniseian and Congo-Saharan (Niger-Congo) to older ones such as Austric, Dené–Caucasian, Eurasiatic, Nostratic, Borean, Altaic, Ural-Altaic, or Indo-Uralic. These proposals are variously considered widely rejected and positively discredited (as with Nostratic), debated and uncertain (as with Dené-Yeniseian), or largely accepted and generally proven (as with Macro-Jê).

Rarely the term has also been applied to exceptionally old, large, or diverse language families, such as Afro-Asiatic. ^[5]

See also

• Language family
• List of language families
• List of proposed language families
• Father Tongue hypothesis
• Classification of Southeast Asian languages
• Classification of indigenous languages of the Americas
• Borean languages

References

1. Campbell, Lyle and Mixco, Mauricio J. (2007), A Glossary of Historical Linguistics, University of Utah Press/Edinburgh University Press.
2. Matthews, P.H. (2007), Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics, Oxford University Press.
3. Campbell, Lyle (2004), Historical Linguistics: An Introduction, Edinburgh University Press.
4. Trask, R.L. (2000), The Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics, Edinburgh University Press.
5. Diakonoff, Igor M. (1996), "Some reflections on the Afrasian linguistic macrofamily." Journal of Near Eastern Studies55, 293–294.