There are subdivisions like Germanic and Romance in the language family which do seem sufficiently far apart. However, there are quite a few subdivisions that seem very closely related.
I wonder if there is a way to draw entirely new subdivisions based on benefits of knowing languages from each subdivision.
Also, intuitively, what you say about knowing unrelated languages makes sense. I am curious however, if you had some deeper insight or knowledge into why (if true) this might be?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/IndoEurop...
There are subdivisions like Germanic and Romance in the language family which do seem sufficiently far apart. However, there are quite a few subdivisions that seem very closely related.
I wonder if there is a way to draw entirely new subdivisions based on benefits of knowing languages from each subdivision.
Also, intuitively, what you say about knowing unrelated languages makes sense. I am curious however, if you had some deeper insight or knowledge into why (if true) this might be?