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_This is one of four (or more) alternative answers._  

_(I am posting the alternatives separately and simultaneously to allow separate voting and commenting.  They represent elaborations of potential courses of action touched upon by comments on the question post.  Comments on the answer post can now be used to refine the respective options further; new parallel answers are welcome, too.)_

# Option 2 - Mandatory tag based

We will add two new tags: [tag:general-linguistics] and [tag:other], and add [tag:general-linguistics] to existing questions where it fits.  We will group these two special tags, along with all currently existing tags for languages and language families, to a new group of "required tags".  The expectation is that questions asked about a specific language should tag with that language, or with an applicable language family, or with [tag:other].  Questions asked about languages of certain properties regardless of their genetic affiliation should be tagged with [tag:general-linguistics].  

It will be possible to tag with up to the maximum tag limit (currently: 5) of those required tags, i.e., it will be, for example, possible to tag the same question with both [tag:Japanese] and with [tag:general-linguistics] if the question is about a specific language but soliciting also more general or more theoretical insights.

Any uses of [tag:other] will be gradually converted into newly introduced per-language or per language family tags.  (That requires the same tag maintenance user capability as the one needed for redefining parent tag relationships, and therefore new language tags cannot be invented by every poster on the fly.)