Polygenesis (linguistics)

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Polygenesis is a linguistic theory concerned with the origin of individual natural languages, holding that they come into being not by means of a linear progression from an ancestor language, but by input from one or more. Proponents of polygenesis hold that the concept of genetic relatedness between languages is inaccurate.

This view of language genesis is not held by the majority of linguists, among whom the theory of monogenesis holds sway.