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The Indo-European Languages are a family of related languages that today are widely spoken in the Americas, Europe, and also Western and Southern Asia. Just as languages such as Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian are all descended from Latin, Indo-European languages are believed to derive from a hypothetical language known as Proto-Indo-European, which is no longer spoken.
It is highly probable that the earliest speakers of this language originally lived around Ukraine and neighboring regions in the Caucasus and Southern Russia, then spread to most of the rest of Europe and later down into India. The earliest possible end of Proto-Indo-European linguistic unity is believed to be around 3400 BCE.
Characteristics
Indo-European languages are inflected, meaning different word endings reflect grammatical function. Proto Indo-European, the original language, was highly complex and inflected. Balto-Slavic languages are examples of highly inflected languages. The Indo-European languages are grouped together based on shared basic vocabulary and patterns of sound alternation, which strengthens their similarities. Pure structural agreements, without phonetic substance, are of questionable value in proving membership in the Indo-European family.
Common Features
A complex system of inflections, or changes in the forms of words based on their grammatical function.
A rich system of word formation, including the use of prefixes, suffixes, and compounding.
A subject-verb-object word order in simple declarative sentences.
A relatively free word order in more complex sentences, which allows for flexibility in expressing emphasis and other nuances of meaning.
A distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants, and a distinction between long and short vowels.
A relatively simple system of vowel sounds, with a limited number of vowel phonemes.
These are just a few of the many linguistic features that are common across the Indo-European language family.
Branches of Indo-European Languages
The majority view in historical linguistics is that the homeland of the Indo-European language family was located in the Pontic steppes (present day Ukraine) around 6000 years ago. The evidence for this comes from linguistic paleontology: in particular, certain words to do with the technology of wheeled vehicles are arguably present across all the branches of the Indo-European family; and archaeology tells us that wheeled vehicles arose no earlier than this date. The minority view links the origins of Indo-European with the spread of farming from Anatolia 8000-9500 years ago.
The branches of the Indo-European language family are:
Anatolian: extinct branch that includes Hittite and other ancient languages of Asia Minor.
Celtic: includes Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, and Cornish.
Germanic: includes English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and Icelandic.
Hellenic: includes Greek.
Indo-Iranian: includes Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Persian, and many other languages spoken in South Asia and Central Asia.
Italic: includes Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian, and other Romance languages.
Slavic: includes Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, and many other languages spoken in Eastern Europe.
Albanian: includes Albanian.
Baltic: includes Lithuanian and Latvian.
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