What is "daughter language"

n. (context linguistics English) A language which genetically descends from earlier, parent language.

In historical linguistics, a daughter language is a language descended from another language through a process of genetic descent. Strictly speaking, the metaphor of the mother-daughter relationship can lead to misconceptualization of language history, as daughter languages are normally direct continuations of earlier stages, not separate entities in any way "born" to a parent who eventually dies.