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).[4]
Family Name | Location | Number of |
---|---|---|
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 |