This incredible tree will transform your view of the world by showing how languages are linked.

Do you know that many of the languages we speak can be sorted into just a few categories based on their origin? Minna Sundberg, an illustrator, created a cool language tree infographic that shows us the connections between the oldest languages.

Minna used Ethnologue’s research data to create a family tree of European and Eastern languages. She used bigger leaves to represent the languages with the most native speakers. Even with this detailed language tree, there are still many languages that don’t fit on the page. According to Minna, there is an immense variety of languages that didn’t make it onto the graph, especially those with less than one million speakers or those without official status.

The size of the leaves shows how many people use the language as their first language.

The European branch is divided into three parts: Slavic, Romance and Germanic. There is a complicated link between the Slavic languages.

English language has a Germanic origin.

To the surprise of many, the Finnish language is not related to the languages of its Scandinavian neighbours, but instead belongs to the Uralic family.

The Indo-Iranian group shows how Hindi and Urdu are related, as well as some local languages in India like Rajasthani.

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