High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A Sprachbund (German pronunciation: : "language league" in German) – also known as a linguistic area, convergence area, diffusion area or language crossroads – is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity and language contact. They may be genetically unrelated, or only distantly related. Where genetic affiliations are unclear, the Sprachbund characteristics might give a false appearance of relatedness. Areal features are common features of a group of languages in a Sprachbund.