See what the “Indo-European family of languages” is in other dictionaries. Indo-European family of languages, general characteristics. Groups of the Indo-European family of languages

In our time, this family is represented on all continents, and is also known from a number of dead, ancient written languages. Scientists attribute the formation of the Indo-European family of languages ​​to a period no later than the Bronze Age, and possibly to an earlier time. Subsequently, there was a separation of linguistic branches (groups), and even later - the languages ​​that exist today. The areas where the initial formation of peoples speaking Indo-European languages ​​took place have not been precisely established, and there are a significant number of hypotheses about this.

The Indo-European family includes linguistic branches or groups, individual languages ​​spoken by the peoples listed below.

Slavic group:

a) Eastern European subgroup. Peoples: Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians;

b) West Slavic subgroup. Nations: Poles, Lusatians, Czechs, Slovaks;

c) South Slavic subgroup. Peoples: Slovenes, Croats, Muslim Slavs (Bosnians), Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Bulgarians.

Baltic group. Peoples: Lithuanians, Latvians.

German group. Peoples: Germans, Austrians, German-Swiss, Liechtenstein, Alsatians, Luxembourgers, Flemings, Dutch, Frisians, Afrikaners, Jews of Europe and America, English, Scots, Scots-Irish, Anglo-Africans, Anglo-Australians, Anglo-New Zealanders, Anglo-Canadians, USA Americans, Bahamians, Jamaicans, Grenadians, Barbadians, Trinidadians, Belizeans, Guyanese Creoles, Surinamese Creoles, Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders, Faroese, Danes, etc.

Celtic group. Peoples: Irish, Gaels, Welsh, Bretons.

Roman group. Peoples: Italians, Sardinians, Sanmarines, Italo-Swiss, Corsicans, Rhaeto-Romans, French, Monegasques (Monegasques), Normans, French-Swiss, Walloons, French Canadians, Guadeloupeans, Martinicans, Guianese, Haitians, Reunion Creoles, Mauritian Creoles, Seychelles, Spaniards, Gibraltarians , Cubans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Costa Ricans, Panamanians, Venezuelans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Peruvians, Bolivians, Chileans, Argentines, Paraguayans, Uruguayans, Catalans, Andorrans, Portuguese, Galicians, Brazilians Tsy, Antilleans , Romanians, Moldovans, Aromanians, Istro-Romanians.

Albanian group. Albanians.

Greek group. Peoples: Greeks, Greek Cypriots, Karakachans.

Armenian group. Armenians.

Iranian group. Peoples: Talysh, Gilyans, Mazandarans, Kurds, Baluchis, Lurs, Bakhtiars, Persians, Tats, Hazaras, Charaimaks, Tajiks, Pamir peoples, Pashtuns (Avgans), Ossetians.

Nuristan group. Nuristanis.

Indo-Aryan group. Peoples: Bengalis, Assamese, Oriyas, Biharis, Tharu, Hindustanis, Rajasthanis, Gujerati, Parsis, Bhils, Marathas, Konkani, Punjabis, Dogra, Sindhis, Western Paharis, Kumaoni, Garkhwali, Gujjars, Nepalese, Kashmiris, Shinas, Kohistanis , Kho, Pashais, Tirahs, Indo-Mauritians, Surinamese-Indo-Kistanis, Trinidadians-Indo-Pakistanis, Fijian Indians, Gypsies, Sinhalese, Veddas, Maldivians.

Kartvelian family

Dravidian family

Peoples: Tamils, Irula, Malayali, Erava, Erukali, Kaikadi, Dinara, Badaga.

Ural-Yukaghir family

Finno-Ugric group.

Peoples: Finns, Karelians, Vepsians, Izhorians, Estonians, Livs, Sami, Mari, Mordovians, Udmurts, Komi, Komi-Permyaks, Hungarians, Khanty, Mansi.

Samoyed group. Peoples: Nenets, Enets, Nganasans, Selkups.

Yukagir group. Yukaghirs.

Altai family

Turkic group. Peoples: Turks, Turkish Cypriots, Gagauz, Azerbaijanis, Karadags, Shahsevens, Karapapakhs, Afshars, Qajars, Qashqais, Khorasan Turks, Khalajs, Turkmens, Salars, Tatars, Crimean Tatars, Karaites, Bashkirs, Karachais, Balkars, Kumyks, Nogais, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Uighurs, Altaians, Shors, Khakassians, Tuvinians, Tofalars, Yakuts, Dolgans, etc.

Mongolian group. Peoples: Mongols, Khalkha-Mongols, Mongols of the People's Republic of China, Oirats, Darkha-Kalmyks, Buryats, Daurs, etc.

Tungus-Manchu group. Peoples: Evenks, Negidals, Evens, Orochs, Udeges, Nanais, Ulchis, Oroks.

Korean family

Japanese family

Eskimo-Aleut family

Peoples: Eskimos (including Greenlanders), Aleuts.

Afroasiatic (Semitic-Hamitic) family

Semitic group. Peoples: Arabs of South-West Asia and North Africa, Maltese, Jews of Israel, Assyrians, Amhara, Argobba, Harari, Gurage, Tigran, Tigre.

Berber group. Peoples: Kabyles, Shauyas, Rifs, Tamazights, Shilkh (Shlekh), Tuaregs.

Chadian group. Peoples: Hausa, Angas, Sura, Ankwe, Bade, Bole, Bura, Mandara (Vandala), Kotoko, Masa, Mubi, etc.

Cushitic group. Peoples: Beja, Agau, Afar (Dana-kil), Saho, Oromo (Galla), Somalia, Konso, Sidamo, Ometa, Kaffa, Gimira, Maji, Iraq, etc.

North Caucasian family

Abkhaz-Adyghe group. Peoples: Abkhazians, Abazins, Adygeis, Kabardians, Circassians.

Nakh-Dagestan group. Peoples: Avars (including Ando-Tsezov), Laks, Dargins, Lezgins, Udins, Aguls, Rutulians, Tsakhurs, Tabasarans, Chechens, Ingush.

Sino-Tibetan family

Chinese group. Peoples: Chinese, Hui (Dungans),

bye. Tibeto-Burman group. Peoples: Tibetans, Bhutanese, Ladakhis, Balti, Myanmar (Burmese), etc.

Groups: Bodo-Garo, Miju, Digaro, Miri, Dhimal, Lekcha, Eastern Himalayan, Newari, Gurung, Western Himalayan.

Australasian family

Mop-Khmer group. Peoples: Viet (Kinh), etc.

Nicobar group. Nicobarians.

Khasi and Munda group.

Kadai family

Thai group. Peoples: Siamese (Khontai), Dai, Lao (Laotians).

Austronesian family

Western Austronesian group. Peoples: Malays of Indonesia, Malays of Malaysia, Central Sumatran Malays (Pasemah, Seravey), etc.

Central Austronesian group.

Eastern Austronesian group. 2.6.

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 and historical-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 “Tocharians” conventionally: the Greeks called them Τοχ?ριοι, and the Turks called them toxri.

Dead:

1. Tocharian A - in Chinese Turkestan.

2. Tocharsky V - ibid.

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.

The Indo-European family is one of the largest linguistic families in Eurasia. The common features that distinguish Indo-European languages ​​from languages ​​of other families boil down to the presence of a certain number of regular correspondences between formal elements of different levels associated with the same units of content (borrowings are excluded). A specific interpretation of the facts of similarity between Indo-European languages ​​may consist in postulating a certain common source of the known ones (Indo-European proto-language, base language, diversity of ancient Indo-European dialects) or in accepting the situation of a linguistic union, the result of which was the development of a number of common features in initially different languages. Such a development could, firstly, lead to the fact that these languages ​​began to be characterized by typologically similar structures, and, secondly, these structures received such a formal expression that more or less regular correspondences (transition rules) could be established between them. In principle, both of these interpretation possibilities do not contradict each other, but belong to different chronological perspectives.

Composition of the Indo-European family of languages.

1. Hittite-Luwian (Anatolian) group. It includes the following languages: Hittite cuneiform (Nesith), Luwian, Palayan, hieroglyphic Hittite, Lycian, Lydian, Carian and some other languages ​​of Asia Minor of ancient times.

2. Indian (Indo-Aryan) group. It includes languages: Vedic Sanskrit, Central Indian languages ​​(Pali, Prakrit and Apabhransha), Modern Indian languages ​​(Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Assamese, Oriya, Nepali, Sinhala, Gypsy, etc.).

3. Iranian group. Components: Avestan and Old Persian, Central Iranian languages ​​(Middle Persian (Pahlavi), Parthian, Khorezmian, Saka, Bactrian), New Iranian languages ​​(Persian, Tajik, Pashto, Ossetian, Kurdish, Baluchi, Tat, Talysh, Parachi, Ormuri, Munjan, Yaghnobi) , Pamir (Shugnan, Rushan, Bartang, Yazgulyam, Ishkashim, Wakhan, etc.).

4. Armenian language.

5. Phrygian.

6. Greek group.

7. Thracian language.

8. Albanian language

9. Illyrian language

10. Venetian language

11. Italian group. It includes languages: Latin, Oscan, Umbrian, Faliscan, Pelignian, etc.

12. The following Romance languages ​​developed from Latin: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Provençal, Italian, Sardinian, Romansh, Romanian, Moldavian, Aromanian, Dalmatian, etc.

13. Celtic group: Gaulish, British subgroup - Breton, Welsh, Cornish; Gaelic subgroup - Irish, Scots Gaelic, Manx.

14. Germanic group: East Germanic - Gothic and some other extinct dialects; Scandinavian (North German), modern - Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese; West Germanic - Old High German, Old Saxon, Old Low Frankish, Old English and modern - German, Yiddish, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, Frisian, English

15. Baltic group: Western Baltic - Prussian, Yatvingian; Eastern Baltic - Lithuanian, Latvian, extinct Curonian.

16. Slavic group: East Slavic - Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian; West Slavic - Polish, Kashubian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech, Slovak, extinct dialects of the Polabian Slavs; South Slavic - Old Church Slavonic, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian.

17. Tocharian group: Karashar and Kuchan.

The identity of some other languages ​​as Indo-European is still controversial. As you can see, many of this family have long since died out (Hittite-Luwian, Illyrian, Thracian, Venetian, Oscan-Umbrian, a number of Celtic languages, Gothic, Prussian, Tocharian, etc.), without leaving any traces.

Indo-European languages ​​are widespread throughout almost all of Europe, Western Asia, the Caucasus, Iran, Central Asia, India, etc.; later expansion led to their spread to Siberia, North and South America, Australia, and parts of Africa. At the same time, it is obvious that in ancient times (apparently at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC) these languages ​​or dialects were absent in Asia, the Mediterranean, Northern or Western Europe. Therefore, it is usually assumed that the centers of distribution of Indo-European dialects were in the strip from Central Europe and the northern Balkans to the northern Black Sea region. Among the features of the dialect division of the Indo-European language region, one can note the special proximity of the Indian and Iranian, Baltic and Slavic languages, partly Italic and Celtic, respectively, which gives the necessary indications of the chronological framework of the evolution of the Indo-European family. Indo-Iranian, Greek, and Armenian show a significant number of common isoglosses. At the same time, the Balto-Slavic ones have many common features with the Indo-Iranian ones. Italic and Celtic languages ​​are similar in many ways to Germanic, Venetian and Illyrian. Hittite-Luwian shows significant parallels with Tocharian, etc. The most ancient connections of Indo-European languages ​​are determined both by lexical borrowings and by the results of comparative historical comparison with such languages ​​as the Uralic, Altai, Dravidian, Kartvelian, and Semitic-Hamitic languages.

From the above we can conclude that the Russian language is just one of many other languages ​​that exist or existed on our planet. Despite this, it cannot be said that the greatness and significance of the Russian language in the world is negligible. On the contrary, it occupies a very important place in modern reality.

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.