Language Families
Indo-European
Also Known As Indo-Germanic Historical synonym, still the standard scientific term in German (indogermanisch); now dated or less common than "Indo-European" in most other languages.
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
Indo-European is the largest language family by number of speakers, comprising most of the languages of Europe together with a broad band running through Iran and South Asia. Its branches include Germanic, Romance, Slavic, Celtic, Indo-Iranian, Hellenic, Baltic, Armenian and Albanian, along with extinct branches such as Anatolian (Hittite) and Tocharian. The family was recognized in the late eighteenth century when Sanskrit, Greek and Latin were shown to share systematic correspondences too regular to be coincidence, founding the comparative method that historical linguistics still uses. Whether Anatolian split off before or alongside the rest of the family, the Indo-Hittite question, remains debated among specialists.
Facts
RegionOriginating across Europe and southern and central Asia; today spoken on every inhabited continent through colonization and migration 1 Speaker CountAggregate across all Indo-European languages, the largest of any family by number of speakers; mid-2020s estimate. Proto-Language StatusProto-Indo-European is among the most thoroughly reconstructed proto-languages, established via the comparative method beginning with observations by Sir William Jones on the shared ancestry of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, and refined over two centuries by Bopp, Grimm, Saussure and their successors. 3 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The dominant figure in early twentieth-century Indo-European comparative studies.
Schleicher produced an early systematic reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European and modeled its descendant languages as a family tree.
His comparative study of Indo-European institutions and vocabulary is a landmark of the field.
Includes
Proto-Indo-European is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European family, not a coordinate daughter classified alongside its member languages; recorded as associated rather than holds because this atlas has no dedicated ancestor-of relation type yet.
Sources
1. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
David Crystal (editor), Cambridge University Press, 2010
2. Ethnologue: Languages of the World
3. The Third Anniversary Discourse to the Asiatic Society
William Jones, 1786
Wikipedia: Indo-European Languages (Family Article)
Wikipedia: Indo-European Languages (Family Article)
Wikipedialead sectionQuote, lead section
A synonym is Indo-Germanic (Idg. or IdG.), specifying the family’s southeasternmost and northwesternmost branches.
Glottolog
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyIncludes: EnglishView the Source Glottolog
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyIncludes: SpanishView the Source Glottolog
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyIncludes: HindiView the Source Glottolog
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyIncludes: LatinView the Source Glottolog
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyIncludes: SanskritView the Source Glottolog
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyIncludes: Ancient GreekView the Source Memoire sur le systeme primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-europeennes
Ferdinand de Saussure, 1878Associated With: Ferdinand de Saussure
Deutsche Grammatik
Jacob Grimm, 1822Associated With: Jacob Grimm
Wikipedia: August Schleicher
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: August Schleicher, Career sectionView the Source Wikipedia: Antoine Meillet
Wikipedia: Armenian Language
WikipediaIncludes: Armenian, Classification sectionQuote, Includes: Armenian, Classification section
Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages.
Wikipedia: Emile Benveniste
WikipediaAssociated With: Emile Benveniste, Notable Works sectionView the Source Wikipedia: Germanic Languages
WikipediaIncludes: Germanic, IntroductionQuote, Includes: Germanic, Introduction
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family.
Wikipedia: Proto-Indo-European Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Proto-Indo-European, Lead section, statement that PIE is the reconstructed common ancestor of the familyView the Source Wikipedia: French Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: French, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: French, Infobox, Language family
Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Latinic Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Gallo-Rhaetian Arpitan-Oil Oil Francien zone French
Wikipedia: Portuguese Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Portuguese, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Portuguese, Infobox, Language family
Indo-European > Italic > Latino-Faliscan > Latin > Romance > Italo-Western > Western Romance > Gallo-Iberian > Iberian Romance > West Iberian > Galician-Portuguese > Portuguese
Wikipedia: Urdu
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Urdu, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Urdu, Infobox, Language family
Indo-European > Indo-Iranian > Indo-Aryan > Central Zone > Western Hindi > Hindustani > Urdu
Wikipedia: Marathi Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Marathi, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Marathi, Infobox, Language family
Indo-European > Indo-Iranian > Indo-Aryan > Southern > Marathi-Konkani > Marathi
Wikipedia: Lahnda
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Western Punjabi, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Western Punjabi, Infobox, Language family
Indo-European > Indo-Iranian > Indo-Aryan > Northwestern > Lahnda
Wikipedia: Iranian Persian
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Iranian Persian, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Iranian Persian, Infobox, Language family
Indo-European > Indo-Iranian > Iranian > Western > Southwestern Iranian > Persian > Iranian Persian
Wikipedia: Italian Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Italian, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Italian, Infobox, Language family
Indo-European > Italic > Latino-Faliscan > Latin > Romance > Italo-Western > Italo-Dalmatian > Italo-Romance > Tuscan > Northern Tuscan > Florentine > Italian
Wikipedia: Gujarati Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Gujarati, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Gujarati, Infobox, Language family
Indo-European > Indo-Iranian > Indo-Aryan > Western Indo-Aryan > Gujarati languages > Gujarati
Wikipedia: Bhojpuri Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Bhojpuri, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Bhojpuri, Infobox, Language family
Indo-European > Indo-Iranian > Indo-Aryan > Eastern > Bihari > Bhojpuri
Wikipedia: Prakrit
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Prakrit, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Prakrit, Infobox, Language family
Indo-European > Indo-Iranian > Indo-Aryan > Prakrit
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.