The people of Eurasia: their diversity and languages

The peoples of Eurasia make up almost three-quarters of the world's population. On the mainland there is a large number of different ethnic groups that differ in appearance, mentality, culture and language.

Each people of Eurasia belongs to a certain language family, which, in turn, is divided into groups. The speech of each people in the family is similar and comes from a common common language. Languages in the same group sometimes differ only in pronunciation or spelling.

Most languages were formed territorially. This explains the fact that different peoples of Eurasia have practically the same or similar speech. There is a hypothesis that the ancient people developed their speech, listening to the sounds of the living nature of the area, and therefore some languages are very similar to the sounds that animals make.

Classification of the languages of the peoples of Eurasia

To date, 7 language families have been registered, which unite all languages and dialects of peoples living on the mainland. Each of these families is divided into linguistic groups of the peoples of Eurasia. There are 17 of them.

All languages are divided into:

1. Indo-European family:

• Slavic group (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Czech and Bulgarian);
• German group (English, German, Norwegian and Swedish);
• The Baltic group (Lithuanian and Latvian);
• Romanesque group (Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian);
• Celtic group (Irish);
• Greek group (Greek);
• The Iranian group (Tajik, Afghan and Ossetian);
• The Indo-Aryan group (Hindustan and Nepali);
• Armenian group (Armenian);

2. The Kartvelian family (Georgian).

3.Afrasian family:

• Semitic group (Arabic);

4. The Ural-Yukogir family:

• Finno-Ugric group (Hungarian, Estonian and Finnish);

5. The Altai family:

• The Türkic group (Turkish, Kazakh and Kirghiz);
• Mongolian group (Mongolian and Buryat);
• Japanese group (Japanese);
• Korean group (Korean);

6. Sino-Tibetan family (Chinese);

7. The North Caucasian family:

• Abkhaz-Adyghe group (Abkhaz and Adyghe);
• The Nakh-Daghestani group (Chechen).

How did the languages of the peoples of Eurasia evolve?

On the continent of Eurasia, the most ancient civilizations were created and developed: India, China and Mesopotamia. They have given development to all other peoples, their states, culture, traditions and speech.

The development of the language did not stop, and people settled, mastering new lands, inventing new words and expressions. So there were language groups, and then families. Each people of Eurasia developed the speech already in its own way. People living in different places began to call the same things by different names. So there were dialects, which then passed into full-fledged national languages. For families and groups, all languages have been divided by linguists for a simpler study.

Indo-European language family

The most numerous language family in the world is the Indo-European family. These languages are spoken by many peoples of Eurasia.

This linguistic family is so popular with conquerors and pioneers. Indo-European languages were born in Eurasia, and it is considered the birthplace of all mankind on a par with Africa. People developed new territories and captured indigenous peoples of other continents, then imposed their culture and language on them. Every people of Eurasia at that time tried to subjugate more territories and people. Many scholars associate such a wide distribution of Spanish, English and Russian language with historical events.

What is the difference between Chinese and Japanese?

A common mistake many people make is to regard Chinese and Japanese as similar or almost identical. These two languages are not simply located in different language families. People living in Japan and China are completely different, although they belong to the same race. Each of these countries is a separate people of Eurasia, having its own culture and language.

If the hieroglyphics they write in these countries are difficult to distinguish themselves, this does not mean that the languages are the same. The first difference is that the Japanese write vertically, and the Chinese are horizontal.

By ear, Japanese speech is much rougher than Chinese. The Chinese language is filled with soft sounds. Japanese speech is more abrupt. A deeper study will show that the words in these languages are different, as well as grammar, and other rules.

Slavonic Languages

Slavic languages - the language group of the Indo-European family. These languages are very similar. The speakers of the Slavic languages can often understand each other almost without difficulty, speaking different languages at the same time. This is especially true of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian speech.

Slavic languages began to develop with the emergence of the first Slavic tribes. Each tribe used its own dialect. The more distance there was between them, the more differences appeared in the speech.

All the Slavic languages are divided into eastern, western and southern. This division occurs territorially, as well as the division of tribes.

Of the other representatives of the Indo-European language family, the Baltic group is the closest to the Slavic family. Many scientists explain this by a long association of representatives of these tribes.

Peoples residing on the continent

In fact, there are a lot of people living on the mainland, but if we generalize, then conditionally they can be divided into two groups according to race: Europeanoid and Mongoloid. And these groups, in turn, are divided into subgroups.

A race of Europe consisting of the following groups:

• Slavic;
• The Baltic;
• Germanic;
• Greek;
• Armenian;
• Finno-Ugric.

The Mongoloid race:

• Turkic;
• Mongolian;
• Korean;
• Japanese;
• Chukchi-Kamchatka;
• Sino-Tibetan.

Of course, there are many more ethnic groups and tribes on the territory of Eurasia.

The peoples of Eurasia: countries

Perhaps, in the framework of a single article, it is impossible to list all countries of the continent, because they are about 99! But it is worth mentioning the largest of them. Probably everyone knows that the largest state on the mainland is Russia. It is impossible not to mention India and China, the country with the highest population density.

As for the smallest countries, they are mainly located in the western territories of the mainland. For example, the Vatican is considered a unique state entity. The list of countries-dwarfs include Liechtenstein, Andorra, Luxembourg and Monaco. The smallest states in Asia are Brunei, Maldives and Bahrain.

Eurasia is considered the most colorful continent of the planet, still! Its territory is 3/4 of the world's population with different skin color, own culture and traditions.