Language Trees

Languages evolve over time, with words changing between two separated populations who once used the same word, or adopted words from each other.

These language differences can be displayed in a tree-like network known as a 'phylogeny' that represents the historical relationship between contemporary languages. The pairs of languages on the right edge of the tree are the most closely related. All languages are ultimately related, but pairs of languages that are linked more deeply on the left the tree are more distantly related.

This app explores this language evolution across the Nusa Tenggara group of islands.

See Islands of Order.