Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe, as well as many languages of Southwest and South Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. Contemporary languages in this superfamily include Bengali, English, French, German, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish (each with more than 100 million native speakers), as well as numerous smaller national or minority languages.

Classification

The various subgroups of the Indo-European family include (in historical order of their first attestation):

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• Anatolian languages — earliest attested branch, from the 18th century BC; extinct, most notable was the language of the Hittites.
• Indo-Iranian languages, descending from a common ancestor, Proto-Indo-Iranian
• Indo-Aryan, including Sanskrit, attested from the 2nd millennium BC
• Iranian languages, attested from roughy 1000 BC, including Avestan and Persian.
• Greek language — fragmentary records in Mycenaean from the 14th century BC; Homer dates to the 8th century BC. See History of the Greek language.
• Italic languages — including Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages, attested from the 1st millennium BC.
• Celtic languages — Gaulish inscriptions date as early as the 6th century BC; Old Irish texts from the 6th century AD.
• Germanic languages (including English) — earliest testimonies in runic inscriptions from around the 2nd century, earliest coherent texts in Gothic, 4th century.
• Armenian language — attested from the 5th century.
• Tocharian languages — extinct tongues of the Tocharians, extant in two dialects, attested from roughly the 6th century.
• Balto-Slavic languages, believed by many Indo-Europeanists to derive from a common proto-language later than Proto-Indo-European, while others are sceptical and think that Baltic and Slavic are no more closely related than any other two branches of Indo-European.
• Slavic languages — attested from the 9th century, earliest texts in Old Church Slavonic.
• Baltic languages — attested from the 14th century, and, for languages attested that late, they retain unusually many archaic features attributed to Proto-Indo-European.
• Albanian language — attested from the 16th century; relations with Illyrian, Dacian, or Thracian proposed.

In addition to the classical ten branches listed above, there are several extinct languages, about which very little is known:

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• Illyrian languages — probably related to Messapian; relation to Albanian also proposed.
• Venetic language — close to Italic.
• Messapian — not conclusively deciphered.
• Phrygian language — language of ancient Phrygia, possibly close to Greek, Thracian, or Armenian.
• Paionian language — extinct language once spoken north of Macedon.
• Thracian language — possibly close to Dacian.
• Dacian language — possibly close to Thracian and Albanian.
• Ancient Macedonian language — probably related to Greek, others propose relation to Ilyrian, Thracian or Phrygian.
• Ligurian language — possibly not Indo-European; possibly close to or part of Celtic

There were no doubt other Indo-European languages which are now lost without a trace. The fragmentary Etruscan and Rhaetian languages cannot be classified with any certainty, although they are probably non-Indo-European.

Related Topics:
Etruscan - Rhaetian

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Further subfamilies have been suggested, among them Italo-Celtic and Graeco-Aryan. Neither of these is widely accepted. Indo-Hittite refers to the hypothesis that there is a significant separation between Anatolian and all the remaining groups.

Related Topics:
Italo-Celtic - Graeco-Aryan - Indo-Hittite

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Satem and Centum languages

The Indo-European sub-branches are often classified in a Satem and a Centum group. This is based on the varying treatments of the three original velar rows. Satem languages lost the distinction between labiovelar and pure velar sounds, and at the same time assibilated the palatal velars. The centum languages, on the other hand, lost the distinction between palatal velars and pure velars. Thus, geographically, the "eastern" languages are Satem (Indo-Iranian, Balto-Slavic, but not including Tocharian and Anatolian), and the "western" languages are Centum (Germanic, Italic, Celtic). The Satem-Centum isogloss runs right between the Greek (Centum) and Armenian (Satem) languages (thought to be related by a number of scholars), with Greek exhibiting some marginal Satem features. Some scholars think that there may be some languages that classify neither as Satem nor as Centum (Anatolian, Tocharian, and possibly Albanian). According to them, there never was a "proto-Centum" or a "proto-Satem", but the sound changes spread by areal contact among already distinct post-PIE languages (say, during the 3rd millennium BC).

Related Topics:
Satem - Centum - Velar

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Other linguists consider at least the Satem group monophyletic. According to them, Satemization was a "central" development of the latest stage of proto-Indo-European, which did not reach "peripheral" dialects already separated geographically.

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According to yet others{{fact}}, there was a single "Proto-Satem" dialect that subsequently split into Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian. In the Kurgan picture, this would correspond to the latest remaining dialect in the area of the Urheimat, in the early 3rd millennium.

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Suggested superfamilies

Some linguists propose that Indo-European languages are part of a hypothetical Nostratic language superfamily, and attempt to relate Indo-European to other language families, such as South Caucasian languages, Altaic languages, Uralic languages, Dravidian languages, Afro-Asiatic languages. This theory is controversial, as is the similar Eurasiatic theory of Joseph Greenberg, and the Proto-Pontic of John Colarusso.

Related Topics:
Nostratic language - South Caucasian languages - Altaic languages - Uralic languages - Dravidian languages - Afro-Asiatic languages - Eurasiatic - Joseph Greenberg - Proto-Pontic

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