Origin of Indo-European languages. Indo-European family of languages, general characteristics. Groups of the Indo-European family of languages

The Indo-European language family is the most widely spoken in the world. Its distribution area includes almost all of Europe, both Americas and continental Australia, as well as a significant part of Africa and Asia. More than 2.5 billion people speak Indo-European languages. All languages ​​of modern Europe belong to this family of languages, with the exception of Basque, Hungarian, Sami, Finnish, Estonian and Turkish, as well as several Altai and Uralic languages ​​of the European part of Russia.

The Indo-European family of languages ​​includes at least twelve groups of languages. In order of geographical location, moving clockwise from northwestern Europe, these are the following groups: Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, Slavic, Tocharian, Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Hittite-Luvian, Greek, Albanian, Italic (including Latin and the Romance languages ​​derived from it, which are sometimes classified as a separate group). Of these, three groups (Italic, Hittite-Luwian and Tocharian) consist entirely of dead languages.

Indo-Aryan languages ​​(Indian) - a group of related languages ​​dating back to the ancient Indian language. Included (together with the Iranian languages ​​and closely related Dardic languages) in the Indo-Iranian languages, one of the branches of the Indo-European languages. Distributed in South Asia: northern and central India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal; outside this region - Romani languages, Domari and Parya (Tajikistan). The total number of speakers is about 1 billion people. (Evaluation, 2007).

Ancient Indian languages.

Ancient Indian language. Indian languages ​​come from dialects of the ancient Indian language, which had two literary forms - Vedic (the language of the sacred “Vedas”) and Sanskrit (created by Brahmin priests in the Ganges valley in the first half - mid-first millennium BC). The ancestors of the Indo-Aryans left the ancestral home of the “Aryan Expanse” at the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd millennium. A language related to Indo-Aryan is reflected in proper names, theonyms and some lexical borrowings in the cuneiform texts of the Mitanni and Hittite states. Indo-Aryan writing in the Brahmi syllabary arose in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.

The Central Indian period is represented by numerous languages ​​and dialects, which were in use orally and then in written form from the Middle Ages. 1st millennium BC e. Of these, the most archaic is Pali (the language of the Buddhist Canon), followed by Prakrits (more archaic are the Prakrits of the inscriptions) and Apabkhransha (dialects that developed by the mid-1st millennium AD as a result of the development of Prakrits and are a transitional link to the New Indian languages ).

The New Indian period begins after the 10th century. It is represented by approximately three dozen major languages ​​and a large number of dialects, sometimes very different from each other.

In the west and northwest they border with Iranian (Baluchi language, Pashto) and Dardic languages, in the north and northeast - with Tibeto-Burman languages, in the east - with a number of Tibeto-Burman and Mon-Khmer languages, in the south - with Dravidian languages ​​(Telugu, Kannada). In India, the array of Indo-Aryan languages ​​is interspersed with language islands of other linguistic groups (Munda, Mon-Khmer, Dravidian, etc.).

1. Hindi and Urdu (Hindustani) are two varieties of one modern Indian literary language; Urdu is the official language of Pakistan (Capital Islamabad), written in the Arabic alphabet; Hindi (the official language of India (New Delhi) - based on the Old Indian Devanagari script.

2. Bengali (state of India - West Bengal, Bangladesh (Kolkata)).

3. Punjabi (eastern part of Pakistan, Punjab state of India).

4. Lahnda.

5. Sindhi (Pakistan).

6. Rajasthani (northwest India).

7. Gujarati - southwest subgroup.

8. Marathi - Western subgroup.

9. Sinhala is an insular subgroup.

10. Nepali - Nepal (Kathmandu) - central subgroup.

11. Bihari - Indian state of Bihar - eastern subgroup.

12. Oriya - Indian state of Orissa - eastern subgroup.

13. Assamese - ind. State of Assam, Bangladesh, Bhutan (Thimphu) - eastern. subgroup.

14. Gypsy.

15. Kashmiri - Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan - Dardic group.

16. Vedic is the language of the most ancient sacred books of the Indians - the Vedas, which were formed in the first half of the second millennium BC.

17. Sanskrit is the literary language of the ancient Indians from the 3rd century BC. to 4th century AD

18. Pali - Central Indian literary and cult language of the medieval era.

19. Prakrits - various colloquial Central Indian dialects.

Iranian languages- a group of related languages ​​within the Aryan branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Distributed mainly in the Middle East, Central Asia and Pakistan.

The Iranian group was formed, according to the generally accepted version, as a result of the separation of languages ​​from the Indo-Iranian branch in the Volga region and southern Urals during the period of the Andronovo culture. There is also another version of the formation of Iranian languages, according to which they separated from the main body of Indo-Iranian languages ​​on the territory of the BMAC culture. The expansion of the Aryans in ancient times took place to the south and southeast. As a result of migrations, Iranian languages ​​spread to the 5th century BC. in large areas from the Northern Black Sea region to Eastern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Altai (Pazyryk culture), and from the Zagros mountains, eastern Mesopotamia and Azerbaijan to the Hindu Kush.

The most important milestone in the development of Iranian languages ​​was the identification of Western Iranian languages, which spread west from Dasht-e-Kevir across the Iranian plateau, and the Eastern Iranian languages ​​contrasted with them. The work of the Persian poet Ferdowsi Shahnameh reflects the confrontation between the ancient Persians and the nomadic (also semi-nomadic) Eastern Iranian tribes, nicknamed Turanians by the Persians, and their habitat Turan.

In the II - I centuries. BC. The Great Central Asian Migration of Peoples takes place, as a result of which eastern Iranians populate the Pamirs, Xinjiang, Indian lands south of the Hindu Kush, and invade Sistan.

As a result of the expansion of Turkic-speaking nomads from the first half of the 1st millennium AD. Iranian languages ​​begin to be replaced by Turkic languages, first in the Great Steppe, and with the beginning of the 2nd millennium in Central Asia, Xinjiang, Azerbaijan and a number of regions of Iran. What remained from the steppe Iranian world was the relict Ossetian language (a descendant of the Alan-Sarmatian language) in the Caucasus mountains, as well as the descendants of the Saka languages, the languages ​​of the Pashtun tribes and the Pamir peoples.

The current state of the Iranian-speaking massif was largely determined by the expansion of Western Iranian languages, which began under the Sassanids, but gained full strength after the Arab invasion:

The spread of the Persian language throughout the entire territory of Iran, Afghanistan and the south of Central Asia and the massive displacement of local Iranian and sometimes non-Iranian languages ​​in the corresponding territories, as a result of which the modern Persian and Tajik communities were formed.

Expansion of the Kurds into Upper Mesopotamia and the Armenian Highlands.

Migration of the semi-nomads of Gorgan to the southeast and the formation of the Balochi language.

Phonetics of Iranian languages shares many similarities with Indo-Aryan languages ​​in development from an Indo-European state. The ancient Iranian languages ​​belong to the inflectional-synthetic type with a developed system of inflectional forms of declension and conjugation and are thus similar to Sanskrit, Latin and Old Church Slavonic. This is especially true of the Avestan language and, to a lesser extent, Old Persian. In Avestan there are eight cases, three numbers, three genders, inflectional-synthetic verbal forms of present, aorist, imperfect, perfect, injunctive, conjunctive, optative, imperative, and there is developed word formation.

1. Persian - writing based on the Arabic alphabet - Iran (Tehran), Afghanistan (Kabul), Tajikistan (Dushanbe) - southwestern Iranian group.

2. Dari is the literary language of Afghanistan.

3. Pashto - since the 30s the state language of Afghanistan - Afghanistan, Pakistan - an Eastern Iranian subgroup.

4. Baluchi - Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan (Ashgabat), Oman (Muscat), UAE (Abu Dhabi) - northwestern subgroup.

5. Tajik - Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan (Tashkent) - Western Iranian subgroup.

6. Kurdish - Turkey (Ankara), Iran, Iraq (Baghdad), Syria (Damascus), Armenia (Yerevan), Lebanon (Beirut) - Western Iranian subgroup.

7. Ossetian - Russia (North Ossetia), South Ossetia (Tskhinvali) - East Iranian subgroup.

8. Tatsky - Russia (Dagestan), Azerbaijan (Baku) - western subgroup.

9. Talysh - Iran, Azerbaijan - northwestern Iranian subgroup.

10. Caspian dialects.

11. Pamir languages ​​- unwritten languages ​​of the Pamirs.

12. Yagnob - the language of the Yagnobis, inhabitants of the Yagnob River valley in Tajikistan.

14. Avestan.

15. Pahlavi.

16. Median.

17. Parthian.

18. Sogdian.

19. Khorezmian.

20. Scythian.

21. Bactrian.

22. Saki.

Slavic group. Slavic languages ​​are a group of related languages ​​of the Indo-European family. Distributed throughout Europe and Asia. The total number of speakers is about 400-500 million [source not specified 101 days]. They are distinguished by a high degree of closeness to each other, which is found in the structure of the word, the use of grammatical categories, sentence structure, semantics, a system of regular sound correspondences, and morphonological alternations. This closeness is explained by the unity of origin of the Slavic languages ​​and their long and intensive contacts with each other at the level of literary languages ​​and dialects.

The long-term independent development of the Slavic peoples in different ethnic, geographical, historical and cultural conditions, their contacts with various ethnic groups led to the emergence of differences in material, functional, etc. Slavic languages ​​within the Indo-European family are most similar to the Baltic languages. The similarities between the two groups served as the basis for the theory of the “Balto-Slavic proto-language”, according to which the Balto-Slavic proto-language first emerged from the Indo-European proto-language, which later split into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. However, many scientists explain their special closeness by the long-term contact of the ancient Balts and Slavs, and deny the existence of the Balto-Slavic language.

It has not been established in what territory the separation of the Slavic language continuum from the Indo-European/Balto-Slavic occurred. It can be assumed that it occurred to the south of those territories that, according to various theories, belong to the territory of the Slavic ancestral homelands. From one of the Indo-European dialects (Proto-Slavic), the Proto-Slavic language was formed, which is the ancestor of all modern Slavic languages. The history of the Proto-Slavic language was longer than the history of individual Slavic languages.

For a long time it developed as a single dialect with an identical structure. Dialectal variants arose later. The process of transition of the Proto-Slavic language into independent languages ​​took place most actively in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium AD. e., during the period of formation of the early Slavic states in the territory of South-Eastern and Eastern Europe. During this period, the territory of Slavic settlements increased significantly. Areas of various geographical zones with different natural and climatic conditions were developed, the Slavs entered into relationships with the population of these territories, standing at different stages of cultural development. All this was reflected in the history of Slavic languages.

The history of the Proto-Slavic language is divided into 3 periods: the oldest - before the establishment of close Balto-Slavic linguistic contact, the period of the Balto-Slavic community and the period of dialect fragmentation and the beginning of the formation of independent Slavic languages.

Eastern subgroup:

1. Russian.

2. Ukrainian.

3. Belarusian.

Southern subgroup:

1. Bulgarian - Bulgaria (Sofia).

2. Macedonian - Macedonia (Skopje).

3. Serbo-Croatian - Serbia (Belgrade), Croatia (Zagreb).

4. Slovenian - Slovenia (Ljubljana).

Western subgroup:

1. Czech - Czech Republic (Prague).

2. Slovak - Slovakia (Bratislava).

3. Polish - Poland (Warsaw).

4. Kashubian is a dialect of Polish.

5. Lusatian - Germany.

Dead: Old Church Slavonic, Polabian, Pomeranian.

Baltic group.

The Baltic languages ​​are a language group that represents a special branch of the Indo-European group of languages.

The total number of speakers is over 4.5 million people. Distribution: Latvia, Lithuania, formerly the territories of (modern) northeastern Poland, Russia (Kaliningrad region) and northwestern Belarus; even earlier (before the 7th-9th, in some places the 12th centuries) up to the upper reaches of the Volga, the Oka basin, the middle Dnieper and Pripyat.

According to one theory, the Baltic languages ​​are not a genetic formation, but the result of early convergence [source not specified 374 days]. The group includes 2 living languages ​​(Latvian and Lithuanian; sometimes the Latgalian language is distinguished separately, officially considered a dialect of Latvian); the Prussian language, attested in monuments, which became extinct in the 17th century; at least 5 languages ​​known only by toponymy and onomastics (Curonian, Yatvingian, Galindian/Golyadian, Zemgalian and Selonian).

1. Lithuanian - Lithuania (Vilnius).

2. Latvian - Latvia (Riga).

3. Latgalian - Latvia.

Dead: Prussian, Yatvyazhsky, Kurzhsky, etc.

German group.

The history of the development of Germanic languages ​​is usually divided into 3 periods:

Ancient (from the emergence of writing to the 11th century) - the formation of individual languages;

Middle (XII-XV centuries) - development of writing in Germanic languages ​​and expansion of their social functions;

New (from the 16th century to the present) - the formation and normalization of national languages.

In the reconstructed Proto-Germanic language, a number of researchers identify a layer of vocabulary that does not have an Indo-European etymology - the so-called pre-Germanic substrate. In particular, these are the majority of strong verbs, the conjugation paradigm of which also cannot be explained from the Proto-Indo-European language. The shift of consonants compared to the Proto-Indo-European language is the so-called. “Grimm’s law” - supporters of the hypothesis also explain the influence of the substrate.

The development of Germanic languages ​​from antiquity to the present day is associated with numerous migrations of their speakers. Germanic dialects of ancient times were divided into 2 main groups: Scandinavian (northern) and continental (southern). In the II-I centuries BC. e. Some tribes from Scandinavia moved to the southern coast of the Baltic Sea and formed an East German group opposing the West German (formerly southern) group. The East German tribe of the Goths, moving south, penetrated the territory of the Roman Empire right up to the Iberian Peninsula, where they mixed with the local population (V-VIII centuries).

Within the West Germanic area in the 1st century AD. e. 3 groups of tribal dialects were distinguished: Ingveonian, Istveonian and Erminonian. The resettlement in the 5th-6th centuries of part of the Ingvaean tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) to the British Isles predetermined the further development of the English language. The complex interaction of West Germanic dialects on the continent created the preconditions for the formation of the Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old Low Frankish and Old High German languages.

Scandinavian dialects after their isolation in the 5th century. from the continental group were divided into eastern and western subgroups; on the basis of the first, Swedish, Danish and Old Gutnic languages ​​were later formed, on the basis of the second - Norwegian, as well as the island languages ​​- Icelandic, Faroese and Norn.

The formation of national literary languages ​​was completed in England in the 16th-17th centuries, in the Scandinavian countries in the 16th century, in Germany in the 18th century. The spread of the English language beyond England led to the creation of its variants in the USA, Canada, and Australia. The German language in Austria is represented by its Austrian variant.

North German subgroup:

1. Danish - Denmark (Copenhagen), northern Germany.

2. Swedish - Sweden (Stockholm), Finland (Helsinki) - contact subgroup.

3. Norwegian - Norway (Oslo) - continental subgroup.

4. Icelandic - Iceland (Reykjavik), Denmark.

5. Faroese - Denmark.

West German subgroup:

1. English - UK, USA, India, Australia (Canberra), Canada (Ottawa), Ireland (Dublin), New Zealand (Wellington).

2. Dutch - Netherlands (Amsterdam), Belgium (Brussels), Suriname (Paramaribo), Aruba.

3. Frisian - Netherlands, Denmark, Germany.

4. German - Low German and High German - Germany, Austria (Vienna), Switzerland (Bern), Liechtenstein (Vaduz), Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg.

5. Yiddish - Israel (Jerusalem).

East German subgroup:

1. Gothic - Visigothic and Ostrogothic.

2. Burgundian, Vandal, Gepid, Herulian.

Roman group. Romance languages ​​(Latin Roma "Rome") are a group of languages ​​and dialects that are part of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family and genetically go back to a common ancestor - Latin. The name Romanesque comes from the Latin word romanus (Roman). The science that studies Romance languages, their origin, development, classification, etc. is called Romance studies and is one of the subsections of linguistics (linguistics).

The peoples who speak them are also called Romanesque. The Romance languages ​​developed as a result of the divergent (centrifugal) development of the oral tradition of different geographical dialects of the once united vernacular Latin language and gradually became isolated from the source language and from each other as a result of various demographic, historical and geographical processes.

The beginning of this epoch-making process was laid by Roman colonists who settled regions (provinces) of the Roman Empire remote from the capital - Rome - during a complex ethnographic process called ancient Romanization in the period of the 3rd century. BC e. - 5th century n. e. During this period, the various dialects of Latin are influenced by the substrate.

For a long time, Romance languages ​​were perceived only as vernacular dialects of the classical Latin language, and therefore were practically not used in writing. The formation of the literary forms of the Romance languages ​​was largely based on the traditions of classical Latin, which allowed them to become closer again in lexical and semantic terms in modern times.

1. French - France (Paris), Canada, Belgium (Brussels), Switzerland, Lebanon (Beirut), Luxembourg, Monaco, Morocco (Rabat).

2. Provencal - France, Italy, Spain, Monaco.

3. Italian - Italy, San Marino, Vatican, Switzerland.

4. Sardinian - Sardinia (Greece).

5. Spanish - Spain, Argentina (Buenos Aires), Cuba (Havana), Mexico (Mexico City), Chile (Santiago), Honduras (Tegucigalpa).

6. Galician - Spain, Portugal (Lisbon).

7. Catalan - Spain, France, Italy, Andorra (Andorra la Vella).

8. Portuguese - Portugal, Brazil (Brasilia), Angola (Luanda), Mozambique (Maputo).

9. Romanian - Romania (Bucharest), Moldova (Chisinau).

10. Moldavian - Moldova.

11. Macedonian-Romanian - Greece, Albania (Tirana), Macedonia (Skopje), Romania, Bulgarian.

12. Romansh - Switzerland.

13. Creole languages ​​are crossed Romance languages ​​with local languages.

Italian:

1. Latin.

2. Medieval Vulgar Latin.

3. Oscian, Umbrian, Sabelian.

Celtic group. Celtic languages ​​are one of the western groups of the Indo-European family, close, in particular, to the Italic and Germanic languages. Nevertheless, the Celtic languages, apparently, did not form a specific unity with other groups, as was sometimes previously thought (in particular, the hypothesis of Celto-Italic unity, defended by A. Meillet, is most likely incorrect).

The spread of Celtic languages, as well as Celtic peoples, in Europe is associated with the spread of Hallstatt (VI-V centuries BC) and then La Tène (2nd half of the 1st millennium BC) archaeological cultures. The ancestral home of the Celts is probably localized in Central Europe, between the Rhine and the Danube, but they settled very widely: in the 1st half of the 1st millennium BC. e. they entered the British Isles around the 7th century. BC e. - to Gaul, in the 6th century. BC e. - to the Iberian Peninsula, in the 5th century. BC e. they spread to the south, cross the Alps and come to Northern Italy, finally, by the 3rd century. BC e. they reach Greece and Asia Minor.

We know relatively little about the ancient stages of development of the Celtic languages: the monuments of that era are very scarce and not always easy to interpret; nevertheless, data from the Celtic languages ​​(especially Old Irish) play an important role in the reconstruction of the Indo-European proto-language.

Goidelic subgroup:

1. Irish - Ireland.

2. Scottish - Scotland (Edinburgh).

3. Manx is a dead language of the Isle of Man (in the Irish Sea).

Brythonic subgroup:

1. Breton - Brittany (France).

2. Welsh - Wales (Cardiff).

3. Cornish - dead - on Cornwall - the peninsula of southwestern England.

Gallic subgroup:

1. Gaulish - died out from the era of the formation of the French language; was distributed in Gaul, Northern Italy, the Balkans and Asia Minor

Greek group. The Greek group is currently one of the most unique and relatively small language groups (families) within the Indo-European languages. At the same time, the Greek group is one of the most ancient and well-studied since antiquity.

Currently, the main representative of the group with a full range of linguistic functions is the Greek language of Greece and Cyprus, which has a long and complex history. The presence of a single full representative in our days brings the Greek group closer to the Albanian and Armenian, which are also actually represented by one language each.

At the same time, there were previously other Greek languages ​​and extremely separate dialects that either became extinct or are on the verge of extinction as a result of assimilation.

1. Modern Greek - Greece (Athens), Cyprus (Nicosia)

2. Ancient Greek

3. Middle Greek, or Byzantine

Albanian group:

Albanian language (Alb. Gjuha shqipe) is the language of the Albanians, the indigenous population of Albania proper and part of the population of Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Lower Italy and Sicily. The number of speakers is about 6 million people.

The self-name of the language - “shkip” - comes from the local word “shipe” or “shkipe”, which actually means “rocky soil” or “rock”. That is, the self-name of the language can be translated as “mountain”. The word "shkip" can also be interpreted as "understandable" (language).

Armenian group:

The Armenian language is an Indo-European language, usually classified as a separate group, less often combined with Greek and Phrygian languages. Among the Indo-European languages, it is one of the oldest written languages. The Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405-406. n. e. (see Armenian writing). The total number of speakers worldwide is about 6.4 million. During its long history, the Armenian language has been in contact with many languages.

Being a branch of the Indo-European language, Armenian subsequently came into contact with various Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages ​​- both living and now dead, taking over from them and bringing to the present day much of what direct written evidence could not preserve. At different times, Hittite and hieroglyphic Luwian, Hurrian and Urartian, Akkadian, Aramaic and Syriac, Parthian and Persian, Georgian and Zan, Greek and Latin came into contact with the Armenian language.

For the history of these languages ​​and their speakers, data from the Armenian language are in many cases of paramount importance. This data is especially important for urartologists, Iranianists, and Kartvelists, who draw many facts about the history of the languages ​​they study from Armenian.

Hittite-Luwian group. Anatolian languages ​​are a branch of the Indo-European languages ​​(also known as the Hittite-Luwian languages). According to glottochronology, they separated from other Indo-European languages ​​quite early. All languages ​​in this group are dead. Their carriers lived in the 2nd-1st millennium BC. e. on the territory of Asia Minor (the Hittite kingdom and the small states that arose on its territory), were later conquered and assimilated by the Persians and/or Greeks.

The oldest monuments of Anatolian languages ​​are Hittite cuneiform and Luwian hieroglyphics (there were also short inscriptions in Palayan, the most archaic of the Anatolian languages). Through the works of the Czech linguist Friedrich (Bedrich) the Terrible, these languages ​​were identified as Indo-European, which contributed to their decipherment.

Later inscriptions in Lydian, Lycian, Sidetian, Carian and other languages ​​were written in Asia Minor alphabets (partially deciphered in the 20th century).

Dead:

1. Hittite.

2. Luuvian.

3. Palaysky.

4. Carian.

5. Lydian.

6. Lycian.

Tocharian group. Tocharian languages ​​are a group of Indo-European languages ​​consisting of the dead "Tocharian A" ("East Tocharian") and "Tocharian B" ("West Tocharian"). They were spoken in what is now Xinjiang. The monuments that have reached us (the first of them were discovered at the beginning of the 20th century by the Hungarian traveler Aurel Stein) date back to the 6th-8th centuries. The self-name of the speakers is unknown; they are called “Tochars” conventionally: the Greeks called them Τοχ?ριοι, and the Turks called them toxri.

Dead:

1. Tocharian A - in Chinese Turkestan.

2. Tocharsky V - ibid.

In fact, the concept of the Indo-European linguistic community is comprehensive, since there are practically no countries and continents in the world that are not related to it. The peoples of the Indo-European family of languages ​​inhabit a vast territory from Europe and Asia to both American continents, including Africa and even Australia! The entire population of modern Europe speaks these languages, with only a few exceptions. Some common European languages ​​are not part of the Indo-European language family. These include, for example, the following: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian and Turkish. In Russia, some of the Altai and Uralic languages ​​also have a different origin.

The origin of the languages ​​of the Indo-European group

The very concept of Indo-European languages ​​was introduced at the beginning of the 19th century by the German scientist Franz Bopp to designate a single group of languages ​​of Europe and Asia (including northern India, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh) with strikingly similar features. This similarity has been confirmed by numerous studies by linguists. In particular, it was proven that Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, the language of the Hittites, Old Irish, Old Prussian, Gothic, as well as some other languages, were distinguished by an amazing identity. In this regard, scientists began to put forward various hypotheses about the existence of a certain proto-language, which was the progenitor of all the main languages ​​of this group.

According to some scientists, this proto-language began to develop somewhere in Eastern Europe or Western Asia. The Eastern European theory of origin connects the beginning of the formation of Indo-European languages ​​with the territory of Russia, Romania and the Baltic countries. Other scientists considered the Baltic land to be the ancestral home of Indo-European languages, others linked the origin of these languages ​​with Scandinavia, with the north of Germany and the south of Russia. In the 19th-20th centuries, the Asian theory of origin became widespread, which was subsequently rejected by linguists.

According to numerous hypotheses, the south of Russia is considered the birthplace of the Indo-European civilization. To be more precise, its distribution range covers a vast territory from the northern part of Armenia along the coast of the Caspian Sea all the way to the Asian steppes. The most ancient monuments of Indo-European languages ​​are considered to be Hittite texts. Their origin dates back to the 17th century BC. Hittite hieroglyphic texts are ancient evidence of an unknown civilization, giving an idea of ​​the people of that era, their vision of themselves and the world around them.

Groups of the Indo-European family of languages

In total, Indo-European languages ​​are spoken by 2.5 to 3 billion people in the world, with the largest poles of their distribution being in India, which has 600 million speakers, in Europe and in America - 700 million people in each country. Let's look at the main groups of the Indo-European family of languages.

Indo-Aryan languages

In the large family of Indo-European languages, the Indo-Aryan group forms the most significant part. It includes about 600 languages, these languages ​​are spoken by a total of 700 million people. Indo-Aryan languages ​​include Hindi, Bengali, Maldivian, Dardic and many others. This linguistic zone stretches from Turkish Kurdistan to central India, including parts of Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Germanic languages

The Germanic group of languages ​​(English, German, Danish, Dutch, etc.) is also represented on the map by a very large territory. With 450 million speakers, it covers northern and central Europe, all of North America, parts of the Antilles, Australia and New Zealand.

Romance languages

Another significant group of the Indo-European family of languages ​​is, of course, the Romance languages. With 430 million speakers, the Romance languages ​​are linked by their common Latin roots. Romance languages ​​(French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and others) are distributed mainly in Europe, as well as throughout South America, parts of the USA and Canada, North Africa and on individual islands.

Slavic languages

This group is the fourth largest in the Indo-European language family. Slavic languages ​​(Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian and others) are spoken by more than 315 million inhabitants of the European continent.

Baltic languages

In the Baltic Sea area, the only surviving languages ​​of the Baltic group are Latvian and Lithuanian. There are only 5.5 million speakers.

Celtic languages

The smallest linguistic group of the Indo-European family, whose languages ​​are on the verge of extinction. It includes Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Breton and some other languages. The number of speakers of Celtic languages ​​is less than 2 million.

Linguistic isolates

Languages ​​such as Albanian, Greek and Armenian are isolated languages ​​within the modern Indo-European languages. These are, perhaps, the only surviving languages ​​that do not belong to any of the above groups and have their own characteristic features.

Historical reference

Between about 2000 and 1500 BC, the Indo-Europeans, through their highly organized militancy, were able to conquer vast areas of Europe and Asia. Already at the beginning of 2000, Indo-Aryan tribes entered India, and the Hittites settled in Asia Minor. Subsequently, by 1300, the Hittite empire disappeared, according to one version, under the onslaught of the so-called “people of the sea” - a pirate tribe, which, by the way, was of Indo-European origin. By 1800, the Hellenes settled in Europe, on the territory of modern Greece, and the Latins settled in Italy. A little later, the Slavs, and then the Celts, Germans and Baltics, conquered the rest of Europe. And by 1000 BC the division of the peoples of the Indo-European language family was finally completed.

All these peoples spoke different languages ​​by that time. However, it is known that all these languages, which had a supposed common language of origin, were similar in many ways. Having numerous common features, over time they acquired more and more new differences, such as Sanskrit in India, Greek in Greece, Latin in Italy, Celtic in central Europe, Slavic in Russia. Subsequently, these languages, in turn, split into numerous dialects, acquired new features and ultimately became the modern languages ​​spoken by most of the world's population today.

Considering that the Indo-European family of languages ​​is one of the largest language groups, it represents the most studied linguistic community. Its existence can be judged, first of all, by the presence of a large number of ancient monuments. The existence of an Indo-European language family is also supported by the fact that all these languages ​​have established genetic connections.

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The largest unit of classification of peoples based on linguistic proximity. The biggest I" p. Indo-European, the languages ​​of this family are used by 2.5 billion people. It includes Romance, Germanic, Slavic and other language groups. In the second... ... Geographical encyclopedia

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Indo-European Taxon: family Homeland: Indo-European areas Centum (blue) and Satem (red). The presumed source area of ​​satemization is shown in bright red. Habitat: the whole world... Wikipedia

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Linguistic taxonomy is an auxiliary discipline that helps to organize the objects studied by linguistics: languages, dialects and groups of languages. The result of this ordering is also called the taxonomy of languages. The basis of taxonomy... ... Wikipedia

Linguistic taxonomy is an auxiliary discipline that helps to organize the objects studied by linguistics: languages, dialects and groups of languages. The result of this ordering is also called the taxonomy of languages. The taxonomy of languages ​​is based on... ... Wikipedia

Linguistic taxonomy is an auxiliary discipline that helps to organize the objects studied by linguistics: languages, dialects and groups of languages. The result of this ordering is also called the taxonomy of languages. The taxonomy of languages ​​is based on... ... Wikipedia

The Indo-European language family is the most widespread in the world. Its languages ​​are spoken by more than 2.5 billion people. It includes modern Slavic, Romance, Germanic, Celtic, Baltic, Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Armenian, Greek and Albanian language groups.

Many ancient Indo-Europeans (Indo-Iranians, for example) were nomads and could graze their herds over vast areas, passing on their language to local tribes. After all, it is known that the language of nomads often becomes a kind of Koine in the places of their nomads.

Slavic peoples

The largest ethnolinguistic community of Indo-European origin in Europe is the Slavs. Archaeological evidence indicates the formation of the early Slavs in the area between the Upper Dniester and the basin of the left tributaries of the Middle Dnieper. The earliest monuments (III–IV centuries) recognized as authentically Slavic were found in this region. The first mentions of the Slavs are found in Byzantine sources of the 6th century. Retrospectively, these sources mention the Slavs in the 4th century. It is not known for certain when the Proto-Slavic people separated from the pan-Indo-European (or intermediate Balto-Slavic) people. According to various sources, this could have happened in a very wide time range - from the 2nd millennium BC. until the first centuries AD As a result of migrations, wars and other types of interactions with neighboring peoples and tribes, the Slavic linguistic community split into eastern, western and southern. In Russia, predominantly Eastern Slavs are represented: Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Rusyns. Russians make up the absolute majority of the population of the Russian Federation, Ukrainians are the third largest people in the country.

The Eastern Slavs were the main population of medieval Kievan Rus and Ladoga-Novgorod land. Based on the East Slavic (Old Russian) nationality by the 17th century. Russian and Ukrainian peoples were formed. The formation of the Belarusian people was completed by the beginning of the 20th century. The question of the status of the Rusyns as a separate people is still controversial to this day. Some researchers (especially in Ukraine) consider Rusyns to be an ethnic group of Ukrainians, and the word “Rusyns” itself is an outdated name for Ukrainians, used in Austria-Hungary.

The economic basis on which the East Slavic peoples were historically formed and developed over the centuries was agricultural production and trade. In the pre-industrial period, these peoples developed an economic and cultural type in which arable farming with the cultivation of cereals (rye, barley, oats, wheat) predominated. Other economic activities (livestock raising, beekeeping, gardening, gardening, hunting, fishing, collecting wild plants) were important, but not of primary importance in ensuring life. Until the 20th century Almost everything necessary in the peasant economy of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians was produced independently - from houses to clothing and kitchen utensils. Commodity orientation in the agricultural sector accumulated gradually, and primarily at the expense of landowners' farms. Crafts existed both in the form of auxiliary household crafts and in the form of specialized industries (iron-making, blacksmithing, pottery, salt-making, cooperage, charcoal-burning, spinning, weaving, lace-making, etc.).

A very important element of the economic culture of the East Slavic peoples has traditionally been otkhodnichestvo - the earnings of peasants in a foreign land, far from their native village: this could be work in large landowner farms, in artels of artisans, in mines, in logging, work as itinerant stove makers, tinkers, tailors and etc. It was from the otkhodniks that the human resources of urban industrial production were gradually formed. With the development of capitalism at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. and further, in the process of Soviet industrialization, the outflow of people from the countryside to the city increased, the role of industrial production, non-production areas of activity, and the national intelligentsia grew.

The predominant type of traditional dwelling among the Eastern Slavs varied depending on the area. For Russian, Belarusian, and Northern Ukrainian dwellings, the main material was wood (logs), and the type of structure was a log-frame above-ground five-walled hut. In the north of Russia, log houses were often found: courtyards in which different residential and outbuildings were combined under one roof. Southern Russian and Ukrainian rural housing is characterized by a combination of wood and clay. A common type of structure was the hut: a mud hut - made of wattle, coated with clay and whitewashed.

Family life of the East Slavic peoples before the beginning of the 20th century. was characterized by the spread of two types of families - large and small, with a partial predominance of one or the other in different areas in different historical eras. Since the 1930s There is an almost universal disintegration of the extended family.

An important element of the social structure of the Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples during their stay in the Russian Empire was the class division. Estates differed in specializations, privileges, responsibilities, and property status.

And although in some periods there was a certain inter-class mobility, in general, stay in a class was hereditary and lifelong. Some classes (for example, the Cossacks) became the basis for the emergence of ethnic groups, among which only the memory of the class affiliation of their ancestors is now preserved.

The spiritual life of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Rusyns is rich and varied. Orthodoxy with elements of folk rituals plays a special role. Catholicism (mainly of the Greek rite - among Ukrainians and Ruthenians), Protestantism, etc. are also widespread.

The South Slavs were formed mainly on the Balkan Peninsula, closely interacting with the Byzantines-Romans, then with the Turks. Today's Bulgarians are the result of a mixture of Slavic and Turkic tribes. Modern South Slavs also include Macedonians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Croats, Bosnians, Slovenes, and Gorani.

The religion of the majority of South Slavs is Orthodoxy. Croats are predominantly Catholic. Most of the Bosnians (Muslims, Bosniaks), Gorani, as well as Pomaks (ethnic group) and Torbeshi Allegory of Rus' (ethnic group) are Muslims.

The area of ​​modern residence of the Southern Slavs is separated from the main Slavic area by non-Slavic Hungary, Romania and Moldova. Currently (according to the 2002 census), the southern Slavs living in Russia are Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, and Montenegrins.

The Western Slavs are the Kashubians, Lusatian Sorbs, Poles, Slovaks and Czechs. Their homeland is in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and certain regions of Germany. Some linguists also classify the dialect of the Pannonian Rusyns living in the Serbian region of Vojvodina as West Slavic.

The majority of Western Slav believers are Catholics. There are also Orthodox and Protestants.

Among the Western Slavs living in Russia are Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks. There are quite large Polish communities in the Kaliningrad region, St. Petersburg, Moscow, the Komi Republic, and the Krasnodar Territory.

Armenians and Hemshils

The Armenian language stands apart in the Indo-European family of languages: the Armenian language group includes only it and several of its dialects. The formation of the Armenian language and, accordingly, the Armenian people took place in the 9th–6th centuries. BC. within the state of Urartu.

The Armenian language is spoken in Russia by two peoples: the Armenians and the related Khemshils (Hamshens). The latter come from the Armenian city of Hamshen (Hemshin) in the Pontic Mountains.

The Hemshils are often called Muslim Armenians, but the northern Hamshenians, who moved to the territory of the present-day Krasnodar Territory and Adygea even before the Islamization of their fellow tribesmen, belong, like the majority of Armenians, to the Christian (pre-Chalcedonian) Armenian Apostolic Church. The remaining Khemshils are Sunni Muslims. There are Catholics among the Armenians.

Germanic peoples

The peoples of the Germanic linguistic group in Russia include the Germans, Jews (conditionally) and the British. Within the West Germanic area in the 1st century. AD Three groups of tribal dialects were distinguished: Ingveonian, Istveonian and Erminonian. Relocation in the 5th–6th centuries. Part of the Ingveonian tribes to the British Isles predetermined the further development of the English language.

German dialects continued to form on the continent. The formation of literary languages ​​was completed in England in the 16th–17th centuries, in Germany in the 18th century. The emergence of the American version of English is associated with the colonization of North America. Yiddish emerged as the language of Ashkenazi Jews in Central and Eastern Europe in the 10th–14th centuries. based on Central German dialects with extensive borrowings from Hebrew, Aramaic, as well as from Romance and Slavic languages.

Religiously, Protestants and Catholics predominate among Russian Germans. The majority of Jews are Judaizers.

Iranian peoples

The Iranian group includes at least thirty languages ​​spoken by dozens of peoples. At least eleven Iranian peoples are represented in Russia. All languages ​​of the Iranian group in one way or another go back to the ancient Iranian language or a group of dialects spoken by the Proto-Iranian tribes. About 3–2.5 thousand years BC. dialects of the Iranian branch began to separate from the common Indo-Iranian root. During the era of pan-Iranian unity, the Proto-Iranians lived in the space from modern Iran to, probably, the south and southeast of the present European part of Russia. Thus, the Iranian languages ​​of the Scythian-Sarmatian group were spoken by the Scythians, Sarmatians and Alans. Today the only living language of the Scythian subgroup is spoken by Ossetians. This language has retained certain features of ancient Iranian dialects. The languages ​​of the Persians and Tajiks belong to the Persian-Tajik subgroup proper. Kurdish language and Kurmanji (Yazidi language) - to the Kurdish subgroup. Pashto, the language of the Afghan Pashtuns, is closer to Indian languages. The Tat language and the Dzhugurdi language (the dialect of Mountain Jews) are very similar to each other. In the process of formation, they were significantly influenced by the Kumyk and Azerbaijani languages. The Talysh language was also influenced by Azerbaijani. The Talysh language itself goes back to Azeri, the Iranian language spoken in Azerbaijan before its capture by the Seljuk Turks, after which most of the Azerbaijanis switched to the Turkic language, which is now called Azerbaijani.

There is almost no need to talk about common features in the traditional economic complex, customs and spiritual life of different Iranian peoples: they have lived far from each other for too long, they have experienced too many very different influences.

Romance peoples

Romance languages ​​are so called because they go back to Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. Of the Romance languages ​​in Russia, the most widespread is Romanian, or rather its Moldavian dialect, which is considered an independent language. Romanian is the language of the inhabitants of ancient Dacia, on whose lands modern Romania and Moldova are located. Before the Romanization of Dacia, tribes of Getae, Dacians, and Illyrians lived there. The area was then under Roman rule for 175 years and underwent intensive colonization. The Romans went there from all over the empire: some dreamed of retiring and occupying free lands, others were sent to Dacia as an exile - away from Rome. Soon almost all of Dacia spoke a local version of folk Latin. But from the 7th century. Most of the Balkan Peninsula is occupied by the Slavs, and for the Vlachs, the ancestors of the Romanians and Moldovans, the period of Slavic-Roman bilingualism begins. Under the influence of the Bulgarian kingdom, the Vlachs adopted Old Church Slavonic as the main written language and used it until the 16th century, when Romanian writing itself finally appeared based on the Cyrillic alphabet. The Romanian alphabet, based on the Latin alphabet, was introduced only in 1860.

Residents of Bessarabia, which was part of the Russian Empire, continued to write in Cyrillic. Until the end of the 20th century. the Moldovan language was strongly influenced by Russian.

The main traditional occupations of Moldovans and Romanians - until the 19th century. cattle breeding, then arable farming (corn, wheat, barley), viticulture and winemaking. Believing Moldovans and Romanians are mostly Orthodox. There are Catholics and Protestants.

The homeland of other Romance-speaking peoples, whose representatives are found in Russia, is far abroad. Spanish (also called Castilian) is spoken by Spaniards and Cubans, French by the French, and Italian by Italians. Spanish, French and Italian were formed on the basis of folk Latin in Western Europe. In Cuba (as in other Latin American countries), the Spanish language took hold during the process of Spanish colonization. Most of the believers among representatives of these nations are Catholics.

Indo-Aryan peoples

Indo-Aryan are languages ​​that go back to ancient Indian. Most of these are the languages ​​of the peoples of Hindustan. Also included in this group of languages ​​is the so-called Romani Chib - the language of Western gypsies. Gypsies (Roma) come from India, but their language developed in isolation from the main Indo-Aryan area and today differs significantly from the Hindustani languages ​​proper. In terms of their way of life, the Gypsies are closer not to their linguistically related Indians, but rather to the Central Asian Gypsies. The latter include the ethnic groups Lyuli (Dzhugi, Mugat), Sogutarosh, Parya, Chistoni and Kavol. They speak dialects of Tajik mixed with “Lavzi Mugat” (a special argot based on Arabic and Uzbek languages ​​interspersed with Indo-Aryan vocabulary). The Parya group, in addition, retains its own Indo-Aryan language for internal communication, which differs significantly from both the Hindustan languages ​​and the Gypsy. Historical data suggests that the Lyuli probably came to Central Asia and Persia from India during the time of Tamerlane or earlier. Some Lyuli moved directly to Russia in the 1990s. Western gypsies from India came to Egypt, then for a long time they were subjects of Byzantium and lived in the Balkans, and came to Russian territory in the 16th century. through Moldova, Romania, Germany and Poland. Roma, Lyuli, Sogutarosh, Parya, Chistoni and Kavol do not consider each other related peoples.

Greeks

A separate group within the Indo-European family is the Greek language, it is spoken by the Greeks, but conventionally the Greek group also includes the Pontic Greeks, many of whom are Russian-speaking, and the Azov and Tsalka Urum Greeks, who speak languages ​​of the Turkic group. Heirs of the great ancient civilization and the Byzantine Empire, the Greeks came to the Russian Empire in different ways. Some of them are descendants of Byzantine colonists, others emigrated to Russia from the Ottoman Empire (this emigration was almost continuous from the 17th to the 19th centuries), others became Russian subjects when some lands that previously belonged to Turkey were transferred to Russia.

Baltic peoples

The Baltic (Letto-Lithuanian) group of Indo-European languages ​​is related to the Slavic and once probably formed a Balto-Slavic unity with it. There are two living Baltic languages: Latvian (with the Latgalian dialect) and Lithuanian. The differentiation between the Lithuanian and Latvian languages ​​began in the 9th century, however, they remained dialects of the same language for a long time. Transitional dialects existed at least until the 14th–15th centuries. Latvians migrated to Russian lands for a long time, escaping from German feudal lords. Since 1722, Latvia was part of the Russian Empire. From 1722 to 1915, Lithuania was also part of Russia. From 1940 to 1991, both of these territories were part of the USSR.

Each of us has probably come across the concept of the “Indo-European family of languages” in one way or another. But it is unlikely that anyone, with the exception of linguistic scientists, has a complete understanding of which languages ​​are included in this group, which countries and peoples belong to this language family. In this article we will present the main theories of the origin of Indo-European languages, and also talk about the composition of this language group.

Indo-European family of languages ​​on the world map

In fact, the concept of the Indo-European linguistic community is comprehensive, since there are practically no countries and continents in the world that are not related to it. The peoples of the Indo-European family of languages ​​inhabit a vast territory from Europe and Asia to both American continents, including Africa and even Australia! The entire population of modern Europe speaks these languages, with only a few exceptions. Some common European languages ​​are not part of the Indo-European language family. These include, for example, the following: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian and Turkish. In Russia, some of the Altai and Uralic languages ​​also have a different origin.

The origin of the languages ​​of the Indo-European group

The very concept of Indo-European languages ​​was introduced at the beginning of the 19th century by the German scientist Franz Bopp to designate a single group of languages ​​of Europe and Asia (including northern India, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh) with strikingly similar features. This similarity has been confirmed by numerous studies by linguists. In particular, it was proven that Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, the language of the Hittites, Old Irish, Old Prussian, Gothic, as well as some other languages, were distinguished by an amazing identity. In this regard, scientists began to put forward various hypotheses about the existence of a certain proto-language, which was the progenitor of all the main languages ​​of this group.

According to some scientists, this proto-language began to develop somewhere in Eastern Europe or Western Asia. The Eastern European theory of origin connects the beginning of the formation of Indo-European languages ​​with the territory of Russia, Romania and the Baltic countries. Other scientists considered the Baltic land to be the ancestral home of Indo-European languages, others linked the origin of these languages ​​with Scandinavia, with the north of Germany and the south of Russia. In the 19th-20th centuries, the Asian theory of origin became widespread, which was subsequently rejected by linguists.

According to numerous hypotheses, the south of Russia is considered the birthplace of the Indo-European civilization. To be more precise, its distribution range covers a vast territory from the northern part of Armenia along the coast of the Caspian Sea all the way to the Asian steppes. The most ancient monuments of Indo-European languages ​​are considered to be Hittite texts. Their origin dates back to the 17th century BC. Hittite hieroglyphic texts are ancient evidence of an unknown civilization, giving an idea of ​​the people of that era, their vision of themselves and the world around them.

Groups of the Indo-European family of languages

In total, Indo-European languages ​​are spoken by 2.5 to 3 billion people in the world, with the largest poles of their distribution being in India, which has 600 million speakers, in Europe and in America - 700 million people in each country. Let's look at the main groups of the Indo-European family of languages.

Indo-Aryan languages

In the large family of Indo-European languages, the Indo-Aryan group forms the most significant part. It includes about 600 languages, these languages ​​are spoken by a total of 700 million people. Indo-Aryan languages ​​include Hindi, Bengali, Maldivian, Dardic and many others. This linguistic zone stretches from Turkish Kurdistan to central India, including parts of Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Germanic languages

The Germanic group of languages ​​(English, German, Danish, Dutch, etc.) is also represented on the map by a very large territory. With 450 million speakers, it covers northern and central Europe, all of North America, parts of the Antilles, Australia and New Zealand.

Romance languages

Another significant group of the Indo-European family of languages ​​is, of course, the Romance languages. With 430 million speakers, the Romance languages ​​are linked by their common Latin roots. Romance languages ​​(French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and others) are distributed mainly in Europe, as well as throughout South America, parts of the USA and Canada, North Africa and on individual islands.

Slavic languages

This group is the fourth largest in the Indo-European language family. Slavic languages ​​(Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian and others) are spoken by more than 315 million inhabitants of the European continent.

Baltic languages

In the Baltic Sea area, the only surviving languages ​​of the Baltic group are Latvian and Lithuanian. There are only 5.5 million speakers.

Celtic languages

The smallest linguistic group of the Indo-European family, whose languages ​​are on the verge of extinction. It includes Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Breton and some other languages. The number of speakers of Celtic languages ​​is less than 2 million.

Linguistic isolates

Languages ​​such as Albanian, Greek and Armenian are isolated languages ​​within the modern Indo-European languages. These are, perhaps, the only surviving languages ​​that do not belong to any of the above groups and have their own characteristic features.

Historical reference

Between about 2000 and 1500 BC, the Indo-Europeans, through their highly organized militancy, were able to conquer vast areas of Europe and Asia. Already at the beginning of 2000, Indo-Aryan tribes entered India, and the Hittites settled in Asia Minor. Subsequently, by 1300, the Hittite empire disappeared, according to one version, under the onslaught of the so-called “people of the sea” - a pirate tribe, which, by the way, was of Indo-European origin. By 1800, the Hellenes settled in Europe, on the territory of modern Greece, and the Latins settled in Italy. A little later, the Slavs, and then the Celts, Germans and Baltics, conquered the rest of Europe. And by 1000 BC the division of the peoples of the Indo-European language family was finally completed.

All these peoples spoke different languages ​​by that time. However, it is known that all these languages, which had a supposed common language of origin, were similar in many ways. Having numerous common features, over time they acquired more and more new differences, such as Sanskrit in India, Greek in Greece, Latin in Italy, Celtic in central Europe, Slavic in Russia. Subsequently, these languages, in turn, split into numerous dialects, acquired new features and ultimately became the modern languages ​​spoken by most of the world's population today.

Considering that the Indo-European family of languages ​​is one of the largest language groups, it represents the most studied linguistic community. Its existence can be judged, first of all, by the presence of a large number of ancient monuments. The existence of an Indo-European language family is also supported by the fact that all these languages ​​have established genetic connections.