Given the great number and diversity of world languages, varieties and forms, there have always been attempts to organise this abundance into clear categories. A spectrum of classifications and typologies has emerged. At different times the criteria on which scholars attempted to group languages depended on the needs and interests of society. Languages are also distinguished according to their particular function for speakers (lingua franca), the channels through which they are expressed (such as auditory or signed) and their origins (natural or constructed languages). This chapter describes the most salient classifications and categories of languages.

Linguistic classifications of languages

Linguistic typologies categorise languages on linguistic grounds: that is, according to their linguistic properties. They can be holistic, embracing the entire language system, or partial, referring to only one specific feature of languages. Linguistic typologies are examined and applied by the subfields of linguistics – comparative linguistics and linguistic typology. Multilingualism scholars and practitioners draw on these typologies in order to understand cross-linguistic interactions during acquisition and use of various languages and to explain the outcomes of such interactions in daily communication, in education and at work.

Word order typology

Word order is the preferred order in a particular language, or the only allowed sequence of the main sentence elements: subject (S), object (O) and verb (V). The six possible orders are: SOV, SVO, VSO, VOS, OVS and OSV. Word order typology classifies languages according to the word order practised in a language. The word order sequences of languages are unevenly spread around the globe.

Some languages allow for variations in their syntactic structure, in the order of sentence elements, and we say such languages have a free word order. Latin, Navaho and Russian are among the languages with a free word order. See below the possible variations of word order in Russian: