Genealogical tree of Indo-European languages: examples, language groups, features

The Indo-European branch of languages is one of the largest language families in Eurasia . It has spread throughout the last 5 centuries also in South and North America, Australia and partly in Africa. Indo-European languages before the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries occupied territory from East Turkestan, located in the east, to Ireland in the west, from India in the south to Scandinavia in the north. This family includes about 140 languages. In total, they are spoken by about 2 billion people (according to 2007 estimates). The English language is among them the leading place in terms of the number of speakers.

The Importance of Indo-European Languages in Comparative Historical Linguistics

In the development of comparative-historical linguistics, the role that belongs to the study of Indo-European languages is important. The matter is that their family was one of the first, which scientists have allocated, having the big time depth. As a rule, in science, other families determined, orienting directly or indirectly on the experience gained in the study of Indo-European languages.

Methods for comparing languages

Languages can be compared in different ways. Typology is one of the most common of them. It is the study of the types of linguistic phenomena, as well as the discovery on the basis of this universal laws existing at different levels. Nevertheless, this method is not applicable in the genetic sense. In other words, with the help of it one can not study languages in terms of their origin. The main role for comparative studies should be played by the concept of kinship, as well as the methodology for its establishment.

Genetic classification of Indo-European languages

It is an analogue of the biological, on the basis of which different groups of species are distinguished. Thanks to it, we can systematize many languages, which number about six thousand. Having identified regularities, we can reduce all this to a relatively small number of language families. The results obtained as a result of the genetic classification are invaluable not only for linguistics, but also for a number of other related disciplines. In particular, they are important for ethnography, since the emergence and development of various languages is closely related to ethnogenesis (the emergence and development of ethnoses).

The genealogical tree of Indo-European languages suggests that the differences between them increase over time. This can be expressed in such a way that the distance between them increases, which is measured as the length of the branches or the arrow of the tree.

The branches of the Indo-European family

The genealogical tree of Indo-European languages has many branches. It distinguishes both large groups, and consisting of only one language. We list them. This is the New Greek language, Indo-Iranian languages, Italian (including Latin), Romanesque, Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, Albanian, Armenian, Anatolian (Hittite-Luvian) and Tocharian. It includes, in addition, a number of extinct, which are known to us from scanty sources, mainly on a few glosses, inscriptions, toponyms and anthroponyms from Byzantine and Greek authors. It is Thracian, Phrygian, Messapian, Illyrian, Old Macedonian, Venetian. They can not be reliably attributed to a particular group (branch). Perhaps they should be separated into separate groups (branches), forming the genealogical tree of the Indo-European languages. Scientists do not have a common opinion on this issue.

Undoubtedly, other Indo-European languages existed besides those listed above. Their fate was different. Some of them completely died out, others left behind a few traces in the substratum vocabulary and toponyms. Attempts were made to restore some Indo-European languages along these meager tracks. The most famous reconstructions of this kind are the Cimmerian language. He allegedly left traces in the Baltic and Slavic. It should also be noted Pelagian, which spoke pre-Greek population of ancient Greece.

Pidgins

During the expansion of the various languages of the Indo-European group that took place during the last centuries, dozens of new pidgins were formed on a Romanic and Germanic basis. They are characterized by a radically reduced vocabulary (1,5 thousand words or less) and simplified grammar. Subsequently, some of them were creolized, while others became fully functional both in functional and grammatical terms. These are bislama, current-pisin, cryo in Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea and the Gambia; Seshelva in the Seychelles; Mauritius, Haitian and Reunion, and others.

As an example, we give a brief description of the two languages of the Indo-European family. The first one is Tajik.

Tajik

It belongs to the Indo-European family, to the Indo-Iranian branch and the Iranian group. It is public in Tajikistan, distributed in Central Asia. Together with the Dari language, the literary idiom of the Afghani Tajiks, it refers to the eastern zone of the dialect of the New Persian continuum. This language can be considered as a variant of the Persian (northeastern). Until now, there is a possible mutual understanding between those who use the Tajik language and the Persian-speaking people of Iran.

Ossetian

It belongs to the Indo-European languages, to the Indo-Iranian branch, the Iranian group and the eastern subgroup. The Ossetian language is common in South and North Ossetia. The total number of speakers is about 450-500 thousand people. There were traces of ancient contacts with Slavic, Turkic and Finno-Ugric. The Ossetian language has two dialects: the Irish and the Digorian.

Decay of the base language

Not later than the fourth millennium BC. E. There was a disintegration of a single Indo-European language-basis. This event led to the emergence of many new ones. Figuratively speaking, the genealogical tree of the Indo-European languages began to grow from the seed. There is no doubt that the Hittite-Luvian languages separated first. The time of separating the Tocharian branch is the most controversial because of the scarcity of the data.

Attempts to combine different branches

The Indo-European language family includes numerous branches. Not once have attempts been made to unite them among themselves. For example, hypotheses were expressed that the Slavic and Baltic languages are particularly close. This was also assumed for Celtic and Italic. To date, the most commonly recognized is the unification of Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages, as well as Nuristani and Dardi into the Indo-Iranian branch. In some cases, it was even possible to restore the verbal formulas characteristic of the Indo-Iranian primacy.

As you know, the Slavs belong to the Indo-European language family. However, it has not been determined until now whether to separate their languages into a separate branch. The same applies to the Baltic peoples. Balto-Slavic unity causes a lot of controversy in such an association as the Indo-European language family. Its people can not be unequivocally attributed to this or that branch.

As for other hypotheses, they are completely rejected in modern science. Different traits can form the basis for the division of such a large association, as the Indo-European language family. The peoples who are the bearer of one or another of its languages are numerous. Therefore, it is not so easy to classify them. Various attempts were made to create a harmonious system. For example, according to the development of the back-lingual Indo-European consonants, all the languages of this group were divided into kentum and satem. These associations are named so by the reflection of the word "one hundred." In the satem languages, the initial sound of this pre-Indo-European word is reflected in the form "w", "c", etc. As for the kentum ones, it is characterized by "x", "k," and so on.

The first comparativists

The origin of relatively comparative historical linguistics is attributed to the beginning of the 19th century and is associated with the name of Franz Bopp. In his work, he first proved the scientific affinity of the Indo-European languages.

The first comparativists by nationality were Germans. This F. Bopp, J. Zeiss, J. Grimm and others. They first drew attention to the fact that Sanskrit (ancient Indian language) has a great similarity with German. They proved that some Iranian, Indian and European languages have a common origin. Then these scientists combined them into an "Indo-German" family. After a while it was established that Slavic and Baltic are of exceptional importance for the reconstruction of the Proto-language. So there was a new term - "Indo-European languages".

The merit of August Schleicher

August Schleicher (pictured above) in the mid-19th century summarized the achievements of the comparative predecessors. He described in detail each subgroup of the Indo-European family, in particular its ancient state. The scientist proposed to use the principles of reconstruction of the common proto-language. In the correctness of his own reconstruction, he did not doubt at all. Schleicher even wrote a text in the primordial European language, which he recreated. This is the fable "Sheep and horses".

Comparative-historical linguistics was formed as a result of the study of various related languages, as well as the processing of methods for proving their kinship and the reconstruction of some original pralinguistic state. August Schleicher has the merit of depicting schematically the process of their development in the form of a family tree. The Indo-European language group appears in this case in the following form: the trunk is a common ancestor language, and groups of related languages are branches. The family tree became a visual representation of a distant and close relationship. In addition, it pointed to the presence of closely related common common language (Balto-Slavic - for the ancestors of the Balts and Slavs, the German-Slavic - for the ancestors of the Balts, Slavs and Germans, etc.).

Modern research by Quentin Atkinson

More recently, an international group of biologists and linguists found that the Indo-European language group originated in Anatolia (Turkey).

She, from their point of view, is the birthplace of this group. The research was led by Quentin Atkinson, a biologist from the University of Auckland located in New Zealand. Scientists used methods for analyzing various Indo-European languages that were used to study the evolution of species. They analyzed the lexicon of 103 languages. In addition, they studied data on their historical development and geographical distribution. Based on this, the researchers made this conclusion.

Examination of cognates

How did these scholars study the language groups of the Indo-European family? They considered the cognates. These are single-root words that have a similar sound and common origin in two or more languages. They are usually words that are less subject to change in the process of evolution (denoting related relations, names of parts of the body, as well as pronouns). Scientists compared the number of cognates in different languages. Based on this, they determined the degree of their relationship. Thus, cognates were likened to genes, and mutations were differences in cognates.

Use historical information and geographic data

Then scientists resorted to historical data about the time when the divergence of languages was supposed to be realized. For example, it is believed that in the year 270 the Latin languages of the Romance group began to separate from Latin. It was at this time that Emperor Aurelian decided to take Roman colonists from the province of Dacia. In addition, the researchers used data on the current geographical distribution of various languages.

Results of the study

After combining the information obtained, an evolutionary tree was created on the basis of the following two hypotheses: Kurgan and Anatolian. Researchers, comparing the resulting two trees, found that "Anatolian" from the point of view of statistics is the most likely.

The reaction of colleagues to the results obtained by the Atkinson group was very ambiguous. Many scientists noted that comparison with the biological evolution of linguistic is unacceptable, since they have different mechanisms. However, other scientists found it quite justified to use such methods. Nevertheless, the group was criticized for not checking the third hypothesis, Balkan.

Let's note, that for today the basic hypotheses of the origin of the Indo-European languages are Anatolian and Kurgan. According to the first, the most popular among historians and linguists, their homeland - the Black Sea steppes. Other hypotheses, Anatolian and Balkan, suggest that the Indo-European languages spread from Anatolia (in the first case) or from the Balkan Peninsula (in the second).