Indo-European languages

Introduction & Top Questions
Languages of the family
- Anatolian
- Indo-Iranian
- Greek
- Italic
- Germanic
- Armenian
- Tocharian
- Celtic
- Balto-Slavic
- Albanian
Establishment of the family
- Shared characteristics
- Sanskrit studies and their impact
The parent language: Proto-Indo-European
- Phonology
  - Consonants
  - Vowels
- Morphology and syntax
  - Verbal inflection
  - Nominal inflection
  - Syntax
- Lexicon and culture
- The divergence of Indo-European languages
Characteristic developments of Indo-European languages
- Changes in phonology
- Changes in morphology
- Vocabulary changes
- Non-Indo-European influence on the family

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Thematic map of Eurasia showing the approximate geographic distribution of Indo-European language families, each represented by a different color. Areas include Celtic in western Europe, Germanic in northern and central Europe, Romance in southwestern Europe, Slavic in eastern Europe and Russia, and Indo-Iranian languages in South Asia. Non-Indo-European language regions and areas of common bilingualism are also indicated.

Map of Africa showing the distribution of major language families, with regions color-coded for Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Afro-Asiatic, Khoisan, Austronesian, and Indo-European languages. The map also labels major ethnic groups and peoples within each region, such as Arabs in North Africa, Fulani and Hausa in West Africa, and Zulu and Xhosa in southern Africa.

At a Glance

Indo-European languages summary

Quizzes

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Languages & Alphabets

Related Questions

How are English and Hindi related through the Indo-European language family?
How are Proto-Indo-European and Uralic languages possibly related?
How are Spanish and Persian connected to Proto-Indo-European?
How did 19th-century linguists demonstrate that Indo-European languages were related?
How did Jacob Grimm contribute to the study of Indo-European languages?
How did Latin give rise to modern Romance languages?
How did Sanskrit influence languages in Southeast Asia?
How did Vedic Sanskrit become the oldest major record of an Indo-Aryan language?
How did agriculture figure in Colin Renfrew’s Anatolian homeland hypothesis?
How did laryngeal consonants affect neighboring vowels in Proto-Indo-European?
How did strong verbs use vowel changes to mark past tense in Germanic languages?
How did the Proto-Indo-European verb system differ from the later Germanic verb system?
How did the decipherment of Hittite support Ferdinand de Saussure’s hypothesis?
How did weak verbs form past-tense verbs in Germanic languages?
How do linguists reconstruct Proto-Indo-European without written records of it?
How does the Anatolian hypothesis explain the spread of Indo-European languages into Europe?
How does the Pontic-Caspian steppe hypothesis explain the spread of Indo-European languages?
What evidence supports the idea that Proto-Indo-European had laryngeal consonants?
What is the difference between centum and satem Indo-European languages?
What role did Old Persian play in the Achaemenian Empire?
What similarities led Sir William Jones to connect Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin?
When did Sir William Jones propose that Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin shared a common source?
When was Proto-Indo-European probably spoken?
Where are Indo-European languages spoken across Europe and Asia?
Where was the Pontic-Caspian steppe homeland of Proto-Indo-European located?
Where were the extinct Tocharian languages spoken?
Which Baltic languages became extinct as their speakers were assimilated by neighboring populations?
Which Indo-European branch includes Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi?
Which Indo-European branch includes Persian, Pashto, Kurdish, and Ossetic?
Which ancient languages belonged to the Anatolian branch?
Which extinct group belonged to the East Germanic branch?
Which languages developed from the Italic branch of Indo-European?
Which modern languages are part of the Slavic subbranch?
Which religious traditions used Indo-Aryan languages in their sacred literature?
Which religious traditions used Iranian languages in their sacred literature?
Which three Indo-European language branches are dominant in much of Europe?
Which two Baltic languages have survived into modern times?
Why did the Hittite sound written as ḫ strengthen the laryngeal theory?
Why do linguists give less importance to the centum-satem division than earlier scholars did?
Why do scholars disagree about the Proto-Indo-European homeland?
Why is Hittite important for the study of Indo-European languages?
Why is Proto-Indo-European considered a reconstructed language rather than an attested language?
Why is it difficult to date the split of Proto-Indo-European into separate languages?
Why is the proposed relationship between Indo-European and Uralic languages uncertain?
Why was Armenian once thought to belong to the Iranian language group?
What are Indo-European languages?
Where are Indo-European languages primarily spoken today?
What are some examples of languages within the Indo-European family?
How are the Indo-European languages connected to each other?
What is the French language?
Where is French spoken around the world?
What are some common French words or phrases?
Who first suggested the existence of an Indo-European language family?
What are the two main hypotheses about the homeland of Proto-Indo-European?
What are the Baltic languages?

Geography & Travel Languages

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External Websites

University of Ottawa - Compendium of Language Management in Canada - The Indo-European Family
Omniglot - Tracing The Origins Of Indo-European languages
American Philosophical Society - The Indo-Europeanization of Europe: An Introduction to the Issues
National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Mapping the origins and expansion of the Indo-European language family
Utah State University - History and Civilization - The Indo-Europeans and Historical Linguistics
World History Encyclopedia - Indo-European Languages
Masaryk University Information System - Indo-European Languages (PDF)
Livius - Indo-Europeans
Open Library Publishing Platform - Greek and Latin Roots: Part I Â– Latin - The Indo-European Family of Languages
Sorosoro - Indo-European Languages

Indo-European languages

Also known as: Indogermanic Indo-European language, Indogermanisch Indo-European language(Show More)

Written by

Jay H. Jasanoff

Diebold Professor of Indo-European Linguistics and Philology, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. Author of Hittite and the Indo-European Verb.

Jay H. JasanoffAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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History

Indo-European languages, family of languages spoken in most of Europe and areas of European settlement and in much of Southwest and South Asia. The term Indo-Hittite is used by scholars who believe that Hittite and the other Anatolian languages are not just one branch of Indo-European but rather a branch coordinate with all the rest put together; thus, Indo-Hittite has been used for a family consisting of Indo-European proper plus Anatolian. As long as this...

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