Distribution of Indo-European Languages

Indo-European, the most widely used language family, is the predominant one in Europe, South Asia, and North and Latin America. It has eight branches, including four that are widely used (Indo-Iranian, Germanic, Romance, and Balto-Slavic) and four that are used by relatively few people (Albanian, Armenian, Celtic, and Greek).

Indo-European Branches

Indo-Iranian Branch

The branch of the Indo-European language family with the most users is Indo-Iranian. The branch is divided into the Iranian (or Western) group and the Indo-Aryan (or Eastern) group. The major Iranian group languages include Persian (sometimes called Farsi) in Iran, Pashto in eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, and Kurdish, used by the Kurds of western Iran, northern Iraq, and eastern Turkey. These languages are written in the Arabic alphabet.

The most widely used Indo-Aryan language is Hindi, which is the official language of India. India also recognizes 22 so-called scheduled languages, including 15 Indo-European, 4 Dravidian, 2 Sino-Tibetan, and 1 Austro-Asiatic. The government of India is obligated to encourage the use of these languages. Bengali, the second most widely spoken Indo-Aryan language, is the official language of Bangladesh. Urdu, though very similar to Hindi, is classified as a distinct language, and is Pakistan’s official language, although only 8 percent of Pakistanis use it as their first language. Lahnda, another Indo-Aryan language, is the most widely used language in Pakistan.

Languages of India

India recognizes 22 languages, known as scheduled languages, that the government is required to protect and encourage. The most widely used is Hindi, a language in the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European.

Germanic Branch

English belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic language branch of the Indo-European family. German and Dutch are also West Germanic group languages. The Germanic language branch also includes languages in the North Germanic group, spoken in Scandinavia. The four Scandinavian languages—Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic—all derive from Old Norse, which was the principal language used throughout Scandinavia before 1000 C.E. Four distinct languages emerged after that time because of migration and the political organization of the region into four independent and isolated countries.

Germanic and Balto-Slavic Branches

Balto-Slavic Branch

Balto-Slavic languages predominate in Eastern Europe. Slavic was once a single language, but differences developed in the seventh century C.E., when several groups of Slavs migrated from Asia to different areas of Eastern Europe and thereafter lived in isolation from one another. As a result, this branch has divided into East, West, and South Slavic groups, as well as a Baltic group.

The most widely used Slavic languages are the eastern ones, primarily Russian, which is spoken by more than 80 percent of the Russian people. The importance of Russian increased with the Soviet Union’s rise to power. Soviet officials forced native speakers of other languages to learn Russian as a centripetal force to foster cultural unity among the country’s diverse peoples. In Eastern European countries that were dominated by the Soviet Union, Russian was taught as the second language.

The most used West Slavic language is Polish, followed by Czech and Slovak. The latter two are quite similar, and speakers of one can understand the other. The most widely used South Slavic language is the one spoken in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. When they were all part of Yugoslavia, the language was called Serbo-Croatian. This name now offends Bosniaks and Croatians because it recalls when they were once in a country that was dominated by Serbs. Instead, the names Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian are preferred by people in these countries, to demonstrate that each language is unique, even though linguists consider them one. Bosniaks and Croats write the language in the Latin alphabet and Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet.

Romance Branch

The four most widely used contemporary Romance languages are Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian. The European regions in which these four languages are spoken correspond somewhat to the boundaries of the modern states of Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy. Rugged mountains serve as boundaries among these four countries. The fifth most widely used Romance language, Romanian, is the principal language of Romania and Moldova. It is separated from the other Romance-speaking European countries by Slavic-speaking peoples.

Romance Branch

The principal branch of southwestern Europe. Romance languages evolved from Latin spoken by the Romans 2,000 years ago. As they conquered much of Europe, Roman armies brought their language with them.

Pause & Reflect 5.1.4

Which branch of Indo-European predominates to the north in Europe, which to the south, and which to the east?