what are the three major subfamilies of indo european languages

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What are the three major European languages?

All 24 official languages of the EU are accepted as working languages, but in practice only three – English, French, and German – are in wide general use, and of these, English is the most commonly used.

What are the major branches of Indo-European family?

Branches of the Indo European language family. There are 10 main branches of the Indo European language family, including Anatolian, Albanian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Celtic, Greek, Germanic, Indo-Iranian, Italic and Tocharian. Each one covers different areas in the world.

What are the four main roots of the Indo-European languages?

§4. The Indo-European Family of Languages1. Hellenic:Ancient Greek; Modern Greek2. Italic:Latin; Romance languages: Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian, Provençal, etc.3. Germanic:English, German, Dutch, Flemish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic4. Celtic:Irish, Gaelic, Manx; Welsh, Cornish, Breton

How many branches is the Indo-European language divided into?

The Indo-European family is divided into several branches or sub-families, of which there are eight groups with languages still alive today: Albanian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Indo-Iranian, and Italic; and another nine subdivisions that are now extinct.

How many subfamilies are there in the Indo-European language family?

Each subfamily or linguistic branch in this list contains many subgroups and individual languages. Indo-European language family has 10 known branches or subfamilies, of which eight are living and two are extinct. The relation of Indo-European branches, how they are related to one another and branched from the ancestral proto-language is a matter of further research and not yet well known. There are some individual Indo-European languages that are unclassified within the language family, they are not yet classified in a branch and could be members of their own branch.

What languages were spoken in the Indo-European region?

The contact between different peoples and languages, especially as a result of European colonization, also gave origin to the many pidgins, creoles and mixed languages that are mainly based in Indo-European languages (many of which are spoken in island groups and coastal regions).

What is the transitional language of Punjabi-Sindhi?

Transitional Punjabi-Sindhi. Khetrani / Jafri ( Khetrānī) (it is spoken by the majority of the Khetrans, an Indo-Aryan origin people assimilated by the Baloch and considered a Baloch tribe) (earlier suggestion that Khetrani might be a remnant of a Dardic language) Sindhi languages.

What is the late phase of Indo-European?

Late Proto-Indo-European(Last phase of indo-European as spoken language before splitting into several languages that originated in the regional dialects that diverged in time, and in space with Indo-European migrations, these languages were the direct ancestors of today's subfamilies or "branches" of descendant languages) (larger clades of Indo-European than the individual subfamilies or the way individual subfamilies are related to each other is still an unresolved issue)

How many people speak Indo-European languages?

The Indo-European languages include some 449 ( SIL estimate, 2018 edition) language families spoken by about or more than 3.5 billion people (roughly half of the world population). Most of the major languages belonging to language branches and groups of Europe, and Western and southern Asia, belong to the Indo-European language family.

What does the dotted area mean in Indo-European?

Dotted/striped areas indicate where multilingualism is common. The Indo-European languages include some 449 ( SIL estimate, 2018 edition) language families spoken by about or more than 3.5 billion people (roughly half of the world population).

Where is Lotharingian spoken?

Lotharingian ( Lothringisch) (traditionally spoken in far northern Lorraine, northern France) (here it has the narrow sense of a variant part of the West Palatinate) Rhenish Palatinate / Rhenish Franconian diaspora dialects/languages.

Which language family is linked to Indo-European?

Proposals linking the Indo-European languages with a single language family include: Indo-Uralic, joining Indo-European with Uralic. Pontic, postulated by John Colarusso, which joins Indo-European with Northwest Caucasian.

What are the Indo-European languages?

The Indo-European languages are a language family native to western and southern Eurasia. It comprises most of the languages of Europe together with those of the northern Indian subcontinent and the Iranian Plateau. Some European languages of this family, such as English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, and Spanish, have expanded through colonialism in the modern period and are now spoken across several continents. The Indo-European family is divided into several branches or sub-families, of which there are eight groups with languages still alive today: Albanian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Indo-Iranian, and Italic; and another six subdivisions which are now extinct.

What language did Van Boxhorn think was similar to the European language?

In 1647, Dutch linguist and scholar Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn noted the similarity among certain Asian and European languages and theorized that they were derived from a primitive common language which he called Scythian. He included in his hypothesis Dutch, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Persian, and German, later adding Slavic, Celtic, and Baltic languages. However, Van Boxhorn's suggestions did not become widely known and did not stimulate further research.

How many people speak Indo-European?

In total, 46 percent of the world's population (3.2 billion) speaks an Indo-European language as a first language, by far the highest of any language family.

Why are some languages important?

These generally include the ancient Indo-European languages that are both well-attested and documented at an early date, although some language s from later periods are important if they are particularly linguistically conservative (most notably, Lithuanian ). Early poetry is of special significance because of the rigid poetic meter normally employed, which makes it possible to reconstruct a number of features (e.g. vowel length) that were either unwritten or corrupted in the process of transmission down to the earliest extant written manuscripts .

Where did Indo-European language originate?

By the time the first written records appeared, Indo-European had already evolved into numerous languages spoken across much of Europe and south-west Asia. Written evidence of Indo-European appeared during the Bronze Age in the form of Mycenaean Greek and the Anatolian languages, Hittite and Luwian.

Where are Paleo-Balkan languages spoken?

A variety of Paleo-Balkan languages are spoken in Southern Europe. 500 BC – 1 BC/AD: Classical Antiquity: spread of Greek and Latin throughout the Mediterranean and, during the Hellenistic period ( Indo-Greeks ), to Central Asia and the Hindukush. Kushan Empire, Mauryan Empire. Proto-Germanic.

What is the Indo-European family?

The result today, some 5,000 years later, is what we call the INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES, consisting of two main divisions (Western and Eastern), each comprising a number of major subfamilies or branches (Germanic, Italic, Indo-Iranian, etc.). The terminology and system of classification may vary somewhat from one authority to the next, but there is general agreement on all the essential features. For our present purposes, it is not important to know the details of this complex system, provided we grasp the basic principles and understand the relative positions of Greek, Latin, and English within the vast language family.

Where did the Indo-Europeans come from?

Eventually, scholars came to agree that there must have been an ancient prehistoric people—hypothetically identified as the “Indo-Europeans”—whose language was the ancestral source of many different linguistic streams. Even today, there is some dispute about the geographical origins of these people; but it is widely assumed that their homeland lay to the north of the Black Sea, in what is now southern Russia. Sometime around 3,000 BC, they must have begun dispersing in waves of migration—north and west into continental Europe, and east and south into Persia and India.

What is the eastern division of Indo-European?

Let us leave to one side the EASTERN DIVISION of Indo-European, whose branches include Balto-Slavic (Russian, Polish, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, etc.); Indo-Iranian (ancient Sanskrit, modern Hindi, Bengali, Persian, Afghan, etc.); Armenian; and Albanian. Suffice it to say that English is at least distantly related to all these languages.

Is English a Germanic language?

Still, this does not change the fact that English is a Germanic language, whereas Latin and French are Italic.

How many branches of the Indo-European language were there?

These four branches or subfamilies developed, over many centuries, from four prehistoric proto-languages, which themselves had evolved from the common Indo-European tongue. There has often been contact among the subfamilies, and none of them has been immune to external influence.

What is the Indo-European family?

The Indo-European Family of Languages. The scientific study of linguistics began to gain momentum in the late 18th century. At this time, European scholars became fascinated with verbal similarities between their own historical languages, chiefly Latin and Greek, and the classical language of India, Sanskrit, which was just then becoming known in ...

What are the branches of Indo-European?

Let us leave to one side the EASTERN DIVISION of Indo-European, whose branches include Balto-Slavic (Russian, Polish, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, etc.); Indo-Iranian ( ancient Sanskrit, modern Hindi, Bengali, Persian, Afghan, etc.); Armenian; and Albanian. Suffice it to say that English is at least distantly related to all these languages.

What are the parallel branches of Greek and Latin?

Our work in Greek and Latin Roots for Science and the Social Sciences 250 will relate entirely to the WESTERN DIVISION of Indo-European, which comprises four parallel branches: 1. Hellenic: Ancient Greek; Modern Greek. 2. Italic: Latin; Romance languages: Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian, Provençal, etc. 3.

Did Greek evolve into Latin?

There is one important point that should be immediately apparent. Please notice that Greek, Latin, and English all belong to different language subfamilies. This means, in effect, that Greek vocabulary did not evolve into Latin, nor did Latin evolve into English.

Is the English language borrowing words?

The highly adaptable English language has been borrowing words throughout its history, from every conceivable source. Latin words, in particular, have entered English by a variety of routes, most commonly by way of French. They are loan-words, but they are still Latin derivatives.

What are the Indo-European languages?

Other Indo-European languages with official status in individual states are Assamese, in Assam; Bengali, in West Bengal and Tripura; Gujarati, in Gujarat; Kashmiri, in Jammu and Kashmir; Konkani, in Goa; Marathi, in Maharashtra; Nepali, in portions of northern West Bengal; Oriya, in Odisha; and Punjabi, in Punjab.

What is the largest language group in the subcontinent?

Indo-European languages. The Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family is the largest language group in the subcontinent, with nearly three-fourths of the population speaking a language of that family as a mother tongue. It can be further split into three subfamilies: Indo-Aryan, Dardic, and Iranian.

What is the lingua franca in India?

Lingua francas. The two major lingua francas in India are Hindustani and English. Hindustani is based on an early dialect of Hindi, known by linguists as Khari Boli, which originated in Delhi and an adjacent region within the Ganges-Yamuna Doab (interfluve).

What languages were developed from local vernaculars?

Subsequently, the Prakrit languages developed from local vernaculars but later were refined into literary tongues. The modern Indian languages were derived from the Prakrit languages. Indo-Iranian languages. Distribution of Indo-Iranian languages.

What is the most widely spoken language in Indo-Iranian?

Distribution of Indo-Iranian languages. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. By far the most widely spoken Indo-Iranian language is Hindi, which is used in one form or another by some two-thirds of the population. Hindi has a large number of dialects, generally divided into Eastern and Western Hindi, some of which are mutually unintelligible.

Where are the Dravidian languages spoken?

Dravidian languages are spoken by about one-fourth of all Indians, overwhelmingly in southern India. Dravidian speakers among tribal peoples (e.g., Gonds) in central India, in eastern Bihar, and in the Brahui-speaking region of the distant Pakistani province of Balochistan suggest a much wider distribution in ancient times. The four constitutionally recognized Dravidian languages also enjoy official state status: Kannada, in Karnataka; Malayalam, in Kerala; Tamil (the oldest of the main Dravidian tongues), in Tamil Nadu; and Telugu, in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Manipuri and other Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken by small numbers of people in northeastern India.

Where are Manipuri and other Sino-Tibetan languages spoken?

Manipuri and other Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken by small numbers of people in northeastern India. Dravidian languages: distribution. Distribution of Dravidian languages. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

What are the main languages of Indo-European?

The Indo-European language family has four main living branches: Indo-Iranian, Balto-Slavic, Germanic, and Italic. In the family tree provided below, the languages in the bottom boxes are the largest member language (s) of their respective branches. Of these four branches, the only one that lies outside Europe is Indo-Iranian.

What are the descendent languages of Latin?

The descendent languages of Latin are known as the "Latin languages" or "Romance languages". Two other branches of Indo-European should be noted. Greek, a single-language branch, has been traced to a homeland somewhere north of Greece. 1,21 The Celtic branch has been traced to a homeland of Austria/southern Germany;

How do languages evolve over time?

Introduction. Languages evolve over time. Initially, a language diverges into varying dialects, which are mutually intelligible (e.g. American English and British English). Eventually, dialects become distinct languages, which are not mutually intelligible (e.g. French and Spanish). Languages can therefore be organized into family trees.

Where did italics originate?

The Italiclanguage family originated in Italy. Various branches of Italic languages were spoken throughout the peninsula until the rise of Rome, when all were replaced by Latin.11With the expansion of the Roman Empire, Latin became the common tongueacross large areas of Europe. The descendent languagesof Latin are known as the "Latin languages" or "Romance languages".

Where did the European language originate?

The proto-language of this family (known as "Proto-Indo-European" or simply "Indo-European") emerged in far eastern Europe, from where it spread westward across Europe and eastward into Asia. This great Indo-European expansion occurred primarily during the period ca. 2000-1000 BC. 1

Which language is spoken outside of Europe?

Of these four branches, the only one that lies outside Europe is Indo-Iranian. The Indo-Iranian language, which emerged in Central Asia, fractured into speakers of Iranian(who expanded into Iran) and Indic(who migrated to South Asia).22

Is French a Latin language?

French and Spanish, for instance, both evolved from Latin; in this instance, Latin is the parent language, while French and Spanish are both child languages of Latin. The oldest ancestor of a language family (i.e. the language at the very top of the family tree) is known as the family's proto-language.

What languages are spoken in Indo-European?

Branches of Indo-European (IE) include Indo-Iranian ( Sanskrit and the Iranian languages), Greek, Italic ( Latin and related languages), Celtic, Germanic (which includes English ), Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Albanian, Anatolian, and Tocharian. Some of the most commonly spoken IE languages in the modern world are Spanish, English, Hindustani, ...

What is Indo-European language?

The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred modern languages and dialects, including most of the major languages of Europe as well as many in Asia. (Oliver Burston/Getty Images)

What is the ancestor of all the IE languages called?

Examples and Observations. "The ancestor of all the IE languages is called Proto-Indo-European, or PIE for short. . . . "Since no documents in reconstructed PIE are preserved or can reasonably hope to be found, the structure of this hypothesized language will always be somewhat controversial.".

What is the reconstructed Indo-European language?

The reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages is known as the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). Although no written version of the language survives, researchers have proposed a reconstructed language, religion, and culture to some extent, based largely on shared elements of known ancient and modern Indo-European cultures who live in the areas where the language originated. An even earlier ancestor, dubbed Pre-Proto-Indo-European, has also been proposed.

What languages are spoken in IE?

Some of the most commonly spoken IE languages in the modern world are Spanish, English, Hindustani, Portuguese, Russian, Punjabi, and Bengali.

Where did Indo-European languages originate?

by an agricultural people originating in southeastern Europe. The family of languages is the second-oldest in the world, only behind the Afroasiatic family (which includes the languages of ancient Egypt and early Semitic languages). In terms of written evidence, the earliest Indo-European languages that researchers have found include the Hittite, Luwian, and Mycenaean Greek languages.

Which language family is the second oldest?

The family of languages is the second-oldest in the world, only behind the Afroasiatic family (which includes the languages of ancient Egypt and early Semitic languages). In terms of written evidence, the earliest Indo-European languages that researchers have found include the Hittite, Luwian, and Mycenaean Greek languages.

Overview

List of Indo-European protolanguages

Ancestral (Proto-Indo-European)

Dating the split-offs of the main branches

Anatolian languages (all extinct)

Tocharian languages (Agni-Kuči languages) (all extinct)

Italic languages

Celtic languages

Overview

Present distribution

History of Indo-European linguistics

Classification

Proposed external relations

Evolution

See also

Further reading