“Create a language-family dendrogram with Spanish, Italian and French as Romance languages; English, German and Dutch as Germanic languages; a linguistic-distance scale; and a cut at 2.5.”
Read the decisions behind it.
Name the two language families directly on the tree.
State that the axis represents linguistic distance rather than time.
Use a small, recognisable sample of languages for a first explanation.
Use this format for an illustrative hierarchy of selected languages, not as a substitute for a complete historical-linguistics analysis.
Other examples in this family.
Common questions
What does linguistic distance mean here?
It is the chosen measure of difference between languages. Its meaning depends on the features and method used to calculate it.
Is this a complete language family tree?
No. It is a compact illustration using selected languages to explain how a dendrogram groups related items.
Why use a cut threshold?
A cut turns the hierarchy into a small number of groups, which can help a class discuss the broad family structure.