Indo-European Language Family Notes

Indo-European Language Family

Most major European and Asian languages belong to the Indo-European language family.
This family includes hundreds of modern languages and dialects, some widely spoken and others extinct.
A preliminary model for the relationships between these languages was completed by 1800.
Conrad Malte-Brunn named the family Indo-Germanic in 1810, referencing its spread from India to Europe.
Thomas Young later termed it Indo-European in 1813.
Progress in assigning languages to the family occurred where relationships were clear.
Comparative grammars (Rasmus Rask (1787-1832) and Franz Bopp (1791-1867)) solidified the positions of languages like Sanskrit, Iranian, Greek, Latin, Germanic, Baltic, Slavic, Albanian, and Celtic.

Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that compares languages to establish historical relatedness.
The term Indo-European has a geographical connotation, referring to the family's extension from the Indian subcontinent to Europe.
The family includes most European languages and some from West, Southwest, Central, and South Asia.
Diachronic linguistics studies language through different historical periods.
The comparative method identifies languages within the same family based on phonetic similarities.
Languages such as English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Persian, and Sanskrit are related and descend from a common proto-form called the Proto-Indo-European language.
Systematic correspondence in grammar and vocabulary establishes relationships between members.
Researchers suggest similarities result from the dispersal of a single ancestral language, Proto-Indo-European, into daughter languages and dialects.

Centum and Satem are two branches of Indo-European languages, named by philologists.
Philology is the study of language in oral and written historical sources.
Centum is Latin for 100 and represents the western branch.
Satem (Satim) is Avestan for 100 and represents the eastern branch.
Centum languages include Hellenic, Celtic, Italic, and Germanic.
Centum languages retained labiovelars as a distinct group but merged Proto-Indo-European palatovellars and plain velars.
Velar sounds: k, g, and ng (consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against the soft palate).
Labiovelar sound: w.

Sanskrit is Hinduism's primary sacred language, used in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
It's a standardized dialect of Old Indo-Aryan, originating as Vedic Sanskrit (1700-1200 BCE).
The Vedas, sacred books of India, are the oldest literary texts in any Indo-European language.

Divided into four groups:
- Rig Veda: collection of about a thousand hymns
- Sama Veda: collection of melodies and chants
- Yajur Veda: compilation of ritual offering formulas (prose mantras)
- Atharva Veda: body of incantations and ritual formulas
Each Veda is further divided into:
- Brahmanas: instructions for religious rituals
- Samhitas: mantras or hymns praising deities
Language: Vedic Sanskrit (found in prose writings containing ritual directions and theological commentary).

Developed from one of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects.
Medium for a vast body of Indian literature, including the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
Around 500 BCE, Panini standardized Vedic Sanskrit into classical Sanskrit.

Ashtadyayi (eight chapters): Sanskrit grammar treatise by Panini with linguistic parameters for classical Sanskrit.
It encapsulates phonetics and grammar evolved in Vedic religion in 4,000 sutras.
It distinguishes between spoken language and sacred text language.

Important and frequently used languages include:
- Hindi
- Urdu (official language of Pakistan)
- Bengali (Bangladesh's official language)
- Punjabi
- Marathi
Romani (language of the gypsies) is a dialect of Northwestern India that spread through Persia (Iran) and Armenia around the 5th century AD, and from there to Europe and the Americas.

The Iranian language family spans the Iranian Plateau northwest of India.
The Indo-Iranian group originated north of modern Afghanistan and east of the Caspian Sea (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan).
The original homeland was northwest of the Indian Subcontinent, bordered by the Caspian Sea in the east and Afghanistan in the north.
Around the second millennium BC, speakers of ancestral Indo-Iranian languages moved south and west, settling over a large area of the Middle East.

Any of the Indo-Iranian languages used to write the Avesta (Zoroastrian scripture).
Ranges from ancient Gathas (metrical sermons of Zoroaster) to the relatively modern Zand (language of commentaries).

Native language of the Achaemenian kings of Iran (Darius and Cyrus).
Used in monumental trilingual inscriptions (Persian, Assyrian, and Elamite) written in cuneiform.

Widely spoken in Iran and much of Afghanistan; Tajik is spoken in Central Asia.
Literature contains beautiful epic and lyric poetry; significant artistic contribution to Islamic culture.
Indo-European in structure but shares vocabulary with Arabic, making it relatively simple to learn.

Spoken south of the Caucasus Mountains and at the eastern end of the Black Sea, where it is the official language.
Armenians arrived in this region between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, traveling through the Balkans and across the Hellespont (Dardanelles).

The Dardanelles (Strait of Gallipoli) is a narrow strait that separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey.
The Balkans are a geographic area in Southeastern Europe.

Three varieties of Armenian have been identified since the fifth century CE:
- Classical or grabar (5th-11th centuries)
- Middle (12th-16th centuries)
- Modern (17th-21st centuries)

Consonant shifts are similar to those in Germanic, possibly due to language contact.
Like languages of the South Caucasus, Armenian does not have grammatical gender.
Known since around the 5th century with the translation of the Bible.
Extensive literature, mostly historical and theological.
Strong Iranian influence due to Persian rule; also influenced by Semitic languages, Greek, and Turkish.