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01. Prologue1: The Indo-European (IE) language family is the most widely spoken category of
languages in the world. IE language family is comprised of a number of sub-family of languages
which have various sub-sub-categories within them. In this assignment I briefly recount concept
of the origin of IE languages, the principle languages of IE family and the geographical locations
of these languages. My factual assertions are elaborated/illustrated using maps and tables. Due to
the historical nature of the subject and abundance of researches on it, there was very little to be
added by me (in factual terms), except for arrangement. Thus much of the assignment is
summarization and paraphrasing of the prevalent elements focusing on the requirement of this
assignment.

02. Introduction: Indo-European language family

According to the popular categorizations, there are ten branches of IE language family as
follows: Albanian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Celtic, Germanic, Greek, Indo-Iranian, Italic,
Anatolian, and Tocharian. There are two main approaches to understand the classifications of IE
languages: linguistic and geographical (or historico-geographical). Linguistically, following
some common phonological, morphological, and syntactical patterns or laws, IE languages are
believed to have sprung from a common original language which is designated by scholars as
Proto-Indo-European. Based on some predictable phonetic patterns or laws that are shared by IE
languages, linguists have observed that in some Indo-European subfamilies— for example
Albanian, Armenian, Indo-Iranian, Slavic, and (partially) Baltic—certain presumed q sounds of
Proto-Indo-European became sibilants such as s and ś (an sh sound). Thus, based on the
pronunciation of C and ś, IE languages are grouped into two major category called śatam and
Centum. The languages coming under each group are illustrated in the Appendix or Illustration
3.

The other approach concerns an exploration into the geographical expansion of IE languages
from a historical perspective. In both the approaches there are debates and unresolved questions.
However, here I present some general ideas about the origin and spread of IE languages. The

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I am extremely sorry for being late in submitting the assignment due to inevitable circumstances caused because of
changing my temple. Yet, within the two weeks’ time I had in the new place, I have tried my best to be accurate in
writing the assignment avoiding every kind of errors that were seen.
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original home of the Indo-Europeans is believed to have been somewhere in the bank of the
Caspian Sea – part of which falls in the southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia. Several
migrations are supposed to have taken by the dwellers therein, thus distributing the Indo-
Europeans around the world. The major migrations can be summarized in the table below
(according to the discussions of Frederik Kortlandt).

Eastward Southward Westward migrations:

migrations: migrations:

1. Tocharian 1. Anatolian. 1a. Italic.

2a. Indic. 2a. Greek. 1b. Venetic

2b. South Iranian. 2b. Phrygian. 1c. Celtic.

2c. North Iranian 2c. Armenian. 2. Germanic.

(3. East Slavic.) 2d. Thracian. (3. West Slavic.)

2e. Daco-Albanian.

(3. South Slavic.)

Illustration: 1
03. Indo-European Languages
1. Albanian Language
Albanian is a common term used for four varieties of languages in Albania - a republic in
Southeastern Europe, some parts of Serbia (including almost all of the Serbian province of
Kosovo), Montenegro, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and some isolated places in
Greece and the south of Italy. Questions with regard to the origin of Albanian are unresolved.
However, Albabanian is said to have developed from ancient Illyria. It has four major varieties
that have been expanding with (little) and/or without mutual connection to each other over the
course of about 1,000 years. They are Gheg, spoken in northern Albania, above the Shkumbin
River; Tosk, found to the south of that river; Arvanitika, spoken in some rural enclaves of
Greece, primarily by older people; and Arbëreshë, spoken in southern Italy, brought there by
emigrants and mercenary soldiers of the Ottoman invasion that happened in 1430 A.D.
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Thus considering the four varieties, Albanian is itself a major branch of IE language family. The
four varieties of Albanian although grouped under one family have very little in common. Tosk,
Arvanitika, and Arbëreshë share some close relationship. Speakers of Tosk and Arvanitika may
be able to partially understand each other. Thus two branches of Albanian are recognized : (a.)
Gheg, comprising Gheg Albanian; and (b.) Tosk, comprising Tosk, Arvanitika, and Arbëreshë.
The grammar of Albanian is most similar to that of Modern Greek and Romanian. The
vocabulary includes many loanwords from Latin, Romanian, and Balkan languages. A South
Gheg dialect was used as the official language of Albania from 1909 until World War II (1939-
1945); thereafter, the official language was based on Tosk. Albanian has been written in the
Roman alphabet since 1909. Its alphabet has 36 letters. A limited amount of literature exists in
Albanian, most of it produced after the 19th-century national revival. The earliest documents in
Albanian date from the 15th century.

2. Armenian Language
Armenian Language is the official language of the Republic of Armenia. More than 3 million
people in Armenia and at least another 3 million people in Armenian communities in the Middle
East and Asia, Europe, the former Soviet republics, and North America speak this language.
Until the 19th century, the Armenian language was mistakenly believed to be a dialect of Iranian
because of the presence of many words borrowed from Iranian. Scholars then established it as an
independent branch of the Indo-European language family.

Two main branches of Armenian came to be recognized after the nationalist movements in 19 th
century: The eastern Armenian and the Western Armenian. Eastern Armenian is the official
language of the Armenian republic and is used by Armenians in Iran and eastern Asia. Western
Armenian, the language originally spoken in Armenian communities in Asia Minor, is today
used by Armenians in Turkey, in Arab countries of the Middle East, and in the West. Eastern and
Western Armenian diverged further during the period of Soviet rule, from 1920 to 1991, because
of the isolation of Armenian communities in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and
because of spelling changes to the Eastern dialect in Armenia.
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3. Balto-Slavic
Baltic and Slavic also also a generic term for a number of languages. Baltic languages are spoken
in the area bordering the Baltic Sea. The principal Baltic languages are the Latvian language, the
Lithuanian language, and Old Prussian (extinct since the 17th century). Curonian and
Semigallian are extinct Baltic languages associated with historical regions of northern Europe.
Of the extinct languages, only Old Prussian has significant written records. Some linguists
consider the Baltic and Slavic languages to form a single Indo-European subfamily, Balto-Slavic.

Latvinian became the official language of Latvia in 1918. It is closely related to the Lithuanian
language. Due to historical reasons, Latvinian retains some influence from Finnish, German,
Polish, Swedish, and Russian. The earliest printed writings in Latvian are written in Gothic
script; a form of writing once used in Germany, and are religious in nature. Literature has been
written in both Latvian dialects, but standard Latvian is based on West Latvian. The Latvian
language has used the Roman alphabet with diacritical marks since 1922. The Latvian alphabet
has 48 letters.

Lithuanian Language
Lithuanian Language has been spoken by nearly all the inhabitants of Lithuania and by
expatriates in such countries as the United States, Canada, and Australia. Lithuanian has several
dialects. Shamaitish, or Low Lithuanian, is spoken along the Baltic coast of Lithuania, and
Aukshtaitish, or High Lithuanian, is spoken in the north, south, and east of the country.
Shamaitish is considered notably pure in its retention of archaic Indo-European forms, although
it has also been influenced by Finnish and Russian. The Russian language had a strong influence
on Lithuanian, especially during the years of Soviet domination following World War II (1939-
1945). Lithuanian was used for writing before 16 th century, but, standard literary practices
developed quite recently.

Slavic Languages are spoken by more than 250 million people in eastern and central Europe, in
most of the Balkan Peninsula, and in northern Asia. As mentioned above, due to some
commonalities with Baltic languages, some scholars recognize both language groups into a
Balto-Slavic subfamily. The modern Slavic languages are divided into three branches (it is
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noteworthy that the geographical locations of the languages in these branches are suggested by
their names):
East Slavic: Russian, or Great Russian; Ukrainian, also Little Russian or Ruthenian; and
Belarusian or White Russian
South Slavic: eastern group—Bulgarian and Macedonian; western group—Bosnian, Croatian,
Serbian, and Slovenian
West Slavic: Czech-Slovak group—Czech, Slovak, and other dialects, such as Bohemian and
Moravian; Lekhitic group—Polish and the various Kashubian dialects (remnants of an older
Pomeranian language); Sorbian or Lusatian group—High and Low Sorbian (Wendish).
Some modern Slavic languages (Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, and Polish) are written in the Latin
alphabet, and their speakers are predominantly Roman Catholic. Other Slavic languages
(Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian) use variations of the Cyrillic
alphabet as a result of the influence of the Eastern Orthodox church. Serbian is primarily written
in the Cyrillic alphabet and Bosnian and Croatian in the Latin alphabet. The invention of the
Cyrillic alphabet, an adaptation of the Greek alphabet, is attributed traditionally to Saint Cyril, a
Greek missionary. It is related to the Glagolithic alphabet created by Sts. Cyril and Methodius to
translate the New Testament into the language of the Slavic peoples who, by the 9th century, had
begun to embrace Christianity. The language written in this alphabet is known as Old Slavonic or
Old Church Slavonic and is used as a liturgical language. For most of the middle ages Old
Slavonic was the language of the ecclesiastical literature and of official and diplomatic
documents.

(Illustration: 2, IE in the Linguistic Map of the World)

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4. Celtic Languages, 
Celtic comprises a significant subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. It is divided
into two groups on Geographical and historical considerations as follows:

i. a Continental group (now extinct) and

ii. an Insular group.
Linguistically the Insular languages are further divided into two groups:
i. the Brythonic (or British), including Breton, Cornish, and Welsh; and
ii. the Goidelic (or Gaelic), including Irish, Scottish Gaelic (or Erse), and Manx.
Continental Celtic languages like Gaulish, were spoken throughout western Europe until the 5th
century, but much information about them is left in the dark. Only the Brythonic and Goidelic
groups survive, limited to the British Isles, Brittany, and some North and South American
communities. Most speakers of Brythonic also speak French. Cornish have been an extinct
language since the late 18th century. Welsh language is spoken and being flourished by people of
Wales and some communities in united states and Argetina. Most Welsh speakers also speak
English. Irish, the most ancient of Goidelic group of Celtic languages, is the official language of
western and southwestern parts of Ireland and some parts of Northern Ireland.

Scottish Gaelic developed from the language of fifth century Irish invaders of Scotland. With the
influence of Nose and English in terms of vocabulary, Scottish Gaelic gained recognition as an
independent language. Manx, a dialect of Scottish Gaelic and was spoken in the Isle of Man in
Irish Sea. By twentieth century this dialect strongly influenced by Norse became almost extinct.
Some literary specimens of Manx are available from 17th century onwards.

5. Germanic Languages
Germanic forms a major category of the Indo-European family of languages. Germanic
languages are spoken by more than 480 million people in northern and Western Europe, North
America, South Africa, and Australia. In their structure and evolution they fall into three
branches:
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i. East Germanic (extinct): the Gothic language and some other extinct languages. Scaty
information about this language is available in some fragments of Bible of around
fourth century A.D.
ii. North Germanic or Scandinavian: western group—the Icelandic language, the
Norwegian language, and Faroese (intermediate between Icelandic and western
Norwegian dialects); eastern group—the Danish language and the Swedish language.
iii. West Germanic: Anglo-Frisian group—the English language and the Frisian
language; Netherlandic-German group—Netherlandic, or Dutch-Flemish and the Low
German (Plattdeutsch) dialects, Afrikaans, the German language or High German,
and the Yiddish language.
The geographical locations of the languages in the three branches are suggested by their names.
As a matter of fact, we may note in passing, that English is the first language in the United
Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, some other colonies in UK and US.
As an international language English is spoken all over the world.

06. Greek Language

Greek Language also known as the languages of Hellenic branch was spoken in the various
states or territories that belonged to Greece. In the ancient times Greek was also spoken in Sicily,
west of Asia Minor (Turkistan), etc. Earliest written records in Greek include Homer’s Illiad and
Odyssey which date from 1000 B.C. Many other dialects developed from Greek after Homer.
They include Arcadian or Arcado-Cyprian dialect Doric, North-west Greek, Aeolic, and Ionic
Attic. The Arcado-Cyprian dialect, about which very little is known, is the descendant of a form
spoken in Mycenaean times in at least the Peloponnisos and some of the southern islands.
The Doric dialect, originally spoken in northern Greece, largely supplanted the Arcado-Cyprian
dialect in the Pelopónnisos and came to be spoken also in the southern Cyclades (Kikladhes), on
the island of Crete, and in the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, Sicily, and Italy.
From the Ionic dialect developed the Attic, the standard form of classical Greek. It was the
language of Athens and the surrounding district of Attica. With the conquests of Alexander the
Great and the extension of Macedonian rule in the 4th century B.C., a shift of population from
Greece proper to the Greek settlements in the Middle East occurred. In this period, known as the
Hellenistic, the Attic dialect, spoken by the educated classes as well as by the merchants and
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many emigrants, became the language common to all the Middle East. Modern Greek developed
from the ancient Greek in a long process of history. In eighteenth century it was systematized by
some scholars for scholastic and literary purposes.

7. Indo-Iranian Languages
Indo-Iranian Languages constitute the biggest subfamily of the Indo-European language family.
Presently Indo-Iranian languages are spoken by more than 450 million people in a region
extending from eastern Turkey to Bangladesh and including most of India.

The Indo-Iranian languages are generally divided into two main branches each having three
stages of development ancient, medieval, and modern:
1. Iranian branch –
2. Indo-Aryan, or Indic, branch.
Ancient Iranian branch include Avestan and Old Persian languages. Avestan is represented
mainly by Avesta – the sacred book of the Zoroastrianism. Avestan is believed to have been
spoken by dwellers in the northeastern Persia or ancient Iran before sixth century B.C. However,
scholastic opinions on the date of Zoroaster vary from 1750/1500 B.C. to 570 B.C. Presently,
followers of Zoroastrianism, also known as Parsis, exist in small communities in Iran, India, and
Pakistan. Old Persian was the language of literature and communication of Southwestern Persia
before second century B.C. Only some cuneiform inscriptions of king Darius and I Xerxes I are
available in Old Persian.

Middle Iranian constitutes the languages or dialects developed from Avestan and Old Persian
from around third century B.C. onwards. Number of dialects, including the Parthian language
and several central Asian languages, is collectively known as Middle Persian. Of them, Pahlavi –
in which some Zoroastrian doctrines were written, is the most prominent one. This was the
language used by Sassanian Empire in Iran that lasted for around four hundred years (224 A.D. –
651 A.D.).

Among major Modern Iranian or Persian languages are included Pashto or Afghan, Kurdish, and
Baluchi. Pashto or Afghan is the main language of Afghanistan. Kurdish is the language of a
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community of people known as Kurds who dwell in the cities of Turkey, Iraq, some parts of Iran,
and Syria. Baluchi is the language of Baluchistan region which is located in the Southwestern
part of Pakistan and Southeastern part of Iran.

The Indo-Aryan branch

Like the Indo-Iranian branch, Aryan or Indo-Aryan branch too has three stages of development
into ancient, middle, and modern. Ancient Aryan is represented mainly by Vedic Sanskrit in
which, like Avesta, recognized for the sacred texts called Vedas are written. Linguistically Vedic
Sanskrit has great affinities with Avestan, although a process of developments is seen within
Vedic literature. This literature was developed by the Aryans who are believed to have reached
India around 1500 B.C. and started inhabiting in the banks of Indus river from where the
gradually spread to all other parts of India. Vedic Sanskrit developed until 400 B.C. – the period
when Paṇiṇi – a great grammarian composed his grammar called Aṣṭadhyāyi and formulated
specific grammatical rules, thus polishing the language (Sanskrit). From then onwards there has
been little development of Sanskrit in linguistic terms but much in literary aspects. Sanskrit was
taken to others parts of Asia – like Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, etc. as a language of sacred
texts and literature, but, it influenced the languages and literatures of those lands. Sanskrit is still
flourishing as a language of scholastic interest. Literary practices are also carried out in it.

The Middle Aryan languages are collectively known as Prākṛt. these are said to have developed
from various dialects that existed during the period of Vedic Sanskrit, but, unlike Sanskrit, were
not polished into precise grammatical rules. Of them, Pāli, Māgadhi, Ardhamāgadhi, Aśokan
Prākṛt, are very important: the first as the languages of Theravāda Buddhism, the second two
containing sacred writings of Jainism, the third including the dialects used by Asoka the great in
his edicts and inscriptions. Modern Aryan languages developed from the Middle Aryan Prākṛt
dialects with great influence from Sanskrit. They are spoken in various states of India and Some
Asian countries. Some of the major modern Aryan languages are Bengali (principally the
language of West Bengal, and Bangladesh), Hindi-Urdu (mainly in various states of India and
Pakistan but also in Fiji islands, middle East, Mauritius, and South Africa ), Nepali (official in
Nepal), and Sinhalese (official in Sri Lanka).
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8. Italic
Italic Languages, in its broadest sense considered to be a subfamily that includes Latin, its
modern descendants, the Romance languages, and certain other tongues spoken in ancient Italy.
(Some writers reserve the term Italic languages for the ancient languages only.) The ancient
Italic languages fall into three branches that are closely related in their sound systems but more
diverse in their grammar. The three branches are
(1) Latinian or Latin-Faliscan, which contains both the Latin language; (originally spoken in
Latium, the region surrounding Rome and the Tiber River in west-central Italy) and Faliscan,
closely related to Latin and documented in a few inscriptions from a small area between Latium
and Etruscan territory;
(2) Osco-Umbrian, an extinct group once spoken over a wide region in ancient Italy, and
including two principal members, Oscan and Umbrian; and
(3) Venetic, a northeastern language preserved in some inscriptions from the area between the

By another classification, Italic is also divided into two groups as: p-Italic and q-Italic based on
the fact that p sound of one group is represented by q-(or k) sound in another. q-Italic is
represented by only language Latin, while others fall into the p-Italic group.

9. Anatolian Languages
The languages in the Anatolian family would be almost extinct, but, for some scholastic practices
of some ancient records in these languages. They include: Hittite, Luwian, Palaic, Lycian, and
Lydian.
Hittite Language survives only in some cuneiform inscriptions on tablets excavated at sites in
Asia Minor in the region occupied by ancient Hatti. Hittite, Luwian, Palaic (all recorded before
1000 BC), Lydian, and Lycian (both recorded c. 500-200 BC). Palaic was spoken in the country
called Pala, north of Hatti, and Luwian was spoken in the country called Arzawa, west of Hatti,
and in Cilicia, south of Hatti; Lydian was spoken in northwestern Anatolia, Lycian (descended
from Luwian) in the southwest. The Hittites called their language Nesian, after Nesa, the first
town that they settled, near the site of present-day Kayseri, Turkey.
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Hittite texts in cuneiform writing date to 1600 B.C. and are the oldest written records of any Indo-
European language. Hittite was identified as an Indo-European language only in 1915, by the
Czech Orientalist Bedřich Hrozný, and the related languages even more recently. Linguists are
not yet certain whether the Anatolian group broke away from the parent language, Proto-Indo-
European, before any other known Indo-European tongue, or whether it was merely one of the
earliest to break away. Scholarly research recognizes a much larger number of Indo-European
words in the Hittite language than was previously suspected; the source of many other words
remains to be identified.

10. Tocharian
Tocharian language is represented by some medical and Buddhist works that were discovered in
Chinese Turkistan after the Turfan expeditions. The documents discovered date from the sixth to
tenth century A.D. Although, geographically located in the regions of śatam family, it is
remarkable that Tocharian is categorized under centum family. The Tocharian language is very
heavily influenced by Sanskrit. Unlike the other languages we have seen Tocharian has no
elaborate branches.
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Works Consulted
1. Franklin Edgerton (1946), Sanskrit Historical Phonology, American Oriental Society, New
Haven.
2. Satya Swarup Misra (1968), A Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Greek, and Hittite, The
World Press University, Calcutta.
3. M. Srinivas Misra (1984), An Introduction to Sanskrit Linguistics, D.K. Publications, Delhi.
4. Various websites for general knowledge (e.g. Wikipedia) and Encyclopedias such as
Microsoft Encarta.
5. Frederik Kortlandt, Spread of Indo Europeans, {internet URL: }
6. Class room lectures and discussions.