Dictionary
fam'i•ly-tree' the"ory
Pronunciation: (fam'u-lē trē', fam'lē-), [key]
Historical Ling.
a theory that describes language change in terms of genetically related languages developing in successive splits from a common parent language, such as Indo-European, as depicted by a family tree diagram. Cf.
wave theory.Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
