Indo-European

Indo-European was originally a purely linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. By extension, it became a collective name for cultures and religions associated with these languages. Hypothetically, these cultures arose from the expansion of an ancient people, the Proto-Indo-Europeans, from a homeland that has remained obscured, although opinion is generally divided between southern Russia and Anatolia.

Language Family

See main article Indo-European languages.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Indo-European language family is attested in twelve branches, some of them extinct, with a historical distribution over most of Europe, North India,Anatolia, Iran, and parts of Central Asia (East Turkistan). The word Indo specifically

Related Topics:
Europe - India - Anatolia - Iran - Central Asia - East Turkistan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

refers to India alone. India has the largest single Indo-European speaking population on the planet where 75% of the non-Dravidian population (some 700 million people) speak many different Indo-European languages and dialects, which are descendents of a language called Proto-Indo-Aryan by linguists.

Related Topics:
India - Dravidian - Proto-Indo-Aryan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During the age of colonialism, Indo-European languages spread from Europe to all continents, and today there are over three billion speakers of Indo-European languages, distributed all over the world.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The languages are traditionally separated into a Satem group in the east (Baltic, Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Armenian) and a Centum group in the west (Greek, Italic, Celtic, Germanic), according to their different treatment of PIE velar sounds. The two groups are considered paraphyletic, i.e. there are no separate proto-languages for each group and their common characteristics are likely due to prolonged contact because of their geographical proximity. Also, there is evidence that the Anatolian, Tocharian and Albanian branches belong to neither of the two groups.

Related Topics:
Satem - Baltic - Slavic - Indo-Iranian - Armenian - Centum - Greek - Italic - Celtic - Germanic - Velar sounds - Paraphyletic - Proto-language - Anatolian - Tocharian - Albanian

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~