Indo-European languages, family of languages spoken
in most of Europe and areas of European settlement and in much of Southwest and South Asia
.
What countries speak Indo-European languages?
Indo European Dialect
The language is spoken prominently in Europe except for countries such as
Hungary, Finland, Estonia, Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan
. It is also present in parts of the Middle East such as Iran and Afghanistan, and also Asia in countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
Where are Indo-European languages most commonly spoken?
| Indo-European | Glottolog indo1319 |
|---|
Where did Indo-European languages spread to?
According to the widely accepted Kurgan hypothesis or Steppe theory, the Indo-European language and culture spread in several stages from
the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat in the Eurasian Pontic steppes into Western Europe, Central and South Asia
, through folk migrations and so-called elite recruitment.
Where are Indo-European languages not spoken?
You may have noticed that a few languages spoken on the European continent are not included in the Indo-European family of languages. Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian belong to the Uralic (also called Finno-Ugric) family, and
Basque
(spoken in the Pyrenees region) has no genetic relation to any other language.
What is the oldest Indo-European language?
Aside from a very poorly known dialect spoken in or near northern Iraq during the 2nd millennium bce, the oldest record of an Indo-Aryan language is
the Vedic Sanskrit
of the Rigveda, the oldest of the sacred scriptures of India, dating roughly from 1000 bce.
What is the oldest language in the world?
- Tamil: Origin (according to first appearance as script) – 300 BC. …
- Sanskrit: Origin (according to first appearance as script) – 2000 BC. …
- Greek: Origin (according to first appearance as script) – 1500 BC. …
- Chinese: Origin (according to first appearance as script) – 1250 BC.
What is India's largest Indo-European language?
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.
Which language is most similar to Proto-Indo-European?
The most common one this is claimed about is
Lithuanian
, which preserves lots of IE cases lost elsewhere and has a phonology that's fairly conservative. It's probably a decent contender to be the most conservative.
Are Hungarians Indo Europeans?
Although
Hungarian is not an Indo-European language
, unlike most other European languages, its vocabulary has many words from Slavic and Turkic languages and also from German.
Is English a Germanic language?
German is widely considered among the easier languages for native English speakers to pick up. That's because these languages are true linguistic siblings—originating from the exact same mother tongue. In fact, eighty of the hundred most used words in English are of Germanic origin.
What are the four major Indo-European languages?
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.
Why is it called Indo-European language?
The term Indo-European is essentially
geographical since it refers to the easternmost extension of the family from the Indian subcontinent to its westernmost reach in Europe
. The family includes most of the languages of Europe, as well as many languages of Southwest, Central and South Asia.
Is English considered a Romance language?
Despite a dictionary packed with Latin-derived vocabulary words, the English language can't officially tout itself as a Romance language. In fact,
English is considered a Germanic language
, putting it in the same family as German, Dutch, and Afrikaans languages.
Which language has the most native speakers?
- English (1.132 million speakers) Native speakers: 379 million. …
- Mandarin (1.117 million speakers) …
- Hindi (615 million speakers) …
- Spanish (534 million speakers) …
- French (280 million speakers) …
- Arabic (274 million speakers) …
- Bengali (265 million speakers) …
- Russian (258 million speakers)
What languages are not Proto-Indo-European?
Elsewhere in the world, a number of language-families seem to be completely unrelated to proto-Indo-European. Here are some the general families for these Non-Indo-European languages:
ALTAIC
: A language family including Turkish, Tungusic, and Mongolian.
