Today there are twenty one Oriental Rites and as many particular Churches. These twenty one particular Churches together have only 15 million Catholics whereas there are 880 million Catholics in the Latin Church.(Fr. Mathias Mundadan, the Syro-Malabar Church, an Overview,17). On the basis of early Liturgical languages the Liturgies can be divided into three groups.

1. East Syrian (Syro-Aramaic)
   It is to be taken for granted that the first community in Jerusalem held its divine services in the Aramaic or Syro- Aramaic language, the language which Our Lord himself spoke. By the time Liturgy was codified Edessa became the centre of a national Aramaic or Syrian Christianity. The East Syrian Church became Nestorian. Nestorianism denies the unity of the person of Christ. This Liturgy came to be known from the sixteenth century as Chaldean for those who returned to communion with Rome, and Nestorian for the few Nestorians of Iraq.
   
   Among the St. Thomas Christians it came to be known as Syro-Malabar Liturgy, after the division of St. Thomas Christians into Catholics and Orthodox (Jacobites).Those who separated themselves from Rome after the Koonan Cross Oath are the Jacobites..11 12 A group of the Jacobites, who under the leadership of Mar Ivanios returned to communion in 1930,are the Malankara Catholics. Major part of St. Thomas Christians always remained in communion with Rome.
    
2. Greek
   Antiochian (later shifted to West Syrian) Alexandrian (Egyptian) Byzantine [These three Liturgies originated in Greek and later shifted to vernaculars, namely, to West Syrian, Coptic and Slavonic languages, respectively ].
    
3. Latin
   Roman Gallican [Old Spanish, Gallican, Celtic and Milanese ] The Liturgies in Alexandria and Antioch were originally in Greek Language. After the council of Chalcedon in 451, the Alexandrian Church adopted Monophysitism. From Greek it shifted to Coptic language. Today it is known as The Coptic Church.
   
   The West Syrian Liturgy of Antioch was originally in Greek and was shifted to west Syriac language. This Church adopted Monophysitism. They are the Jacobites. Those who did not adopt Monophysitism and remained in Communion are the Maronites. Monophysites hold that Christ has a divine nature and what was human in him was absorbed by his divinity.
   
   Constantinople which developed later became more prominent than Alexandria and Antioch. Their Liturgy is known as the Byzantine. The Armenian Liturgy is a combination of Byzantine, Syrian and some primordial material. The Armenians returned to communion with Rome.
   
   Latin Christianity first obtained greater importance in North Africa towards the end of the second century. It was also here that the Latin language was first used in Liturgy. The information we have about Latin Christianity in Rome and in the West is only from the sixth century (See Josef A. Jungmann, The Early Liturgy,p.205:The same author, The Mass of the Roman rite,p.45).

On the basis of their origin the above mentioned Liturgies may be divided into five Liturgical families:

1. Alexandrian
   i.Koptic (Patriarchal)
   ii.Ethiopean (Metropolitan
2. Antiochian
   i.Western Syriac (Patriarchal)
   ii.Maronite (Patriarchal)
   iii.Syro-Malankara (Metropolitan)
3. Byzantine (Constantinople)
   i.Albanian (Other particular Churches)
   ii.Bylorecian (Other particular Churches)
   iii.Bulgarian (Other particular Churches)
   iv.Greek (other particular churches)
   v.Hungarian (other particular churches)
   vi.Italo-Albanian (Other particular churches)
   vii.Melkite (Patriarchal)
   viii.Rumanian (Metropolitan)
   ix.Russian (Other particular Churches)
   x.Ruthenian (Metropolitan)
   xi.Slovakian (Other particular Churches)
   xii.Ukrainian (Major Archiepiscopal)..13 14
4. East Syrian
    i.Chaldean (Patriarchal)
   ii.Syro-Malabar (Major Archiepiscopal)
5. Armenian
   i.Armenian (Patriarchal).