The Indo-European Family of Languages

Indo-European is today the most widespread language family in the world, mostly due to European
colonialism. Originally, this language family was spoken from Northern and Western Europe to Northern
India. The existence of the family was postulated when European scholars learned to know Indian
languages, especially Sanskrit, and the work of the Sanskrit Grammarians. In 1786, in his Third
Anniversary Discourse to the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, Bengal, Sir William Jones, orientalist and jurist,
suggested that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin languages had a common root, and that indeed they may all be
further related, in turn, to Gothic and the Celtic languages, as well as to Persian. Thomas Young used the
term Indo-European for the first time to refer to this common source. Franz Bopp's Comparative Grammar
counts as the starting point of Indo-European studies. The 'common source' is now called Proto-Indo-
European (PIE) or simply Indo-European (IE). English as well as other European languages such as French,
German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Asian languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, and Persian, and the
classical languages Greek, Latin, Avestan, Pali, and Sanskrit are members of this family.
This family constitutes the most extensively spoken group of languages in the world. Indo-European
languages are spoken by almost three billion native speakers. Of the twenty languages with the largest
numbers of native speakers, twelve are Indo-European: Spanish, English, Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali,
Russian, German, Marathi, French, Italian, Punjabi, and Urdu, accounting for over 1.7 billion native
speakers.
The study of Indo-European languages was the starting-point for modern historical linguistics. The
Indo-European family is significant to the field of historical linguistics as it possesses the longest recorded
history after the Afro-asiatic family. Indo-European is today the most widely studied language family in the
world. There are a number of reasons for this: Many of the most important languages of the world like
English, Spanish, French, German, Russian etc. are Indo-European. These languages are official or co-
official in many countries and are important in academic, technical and world organisations. More than half
the world's population speak one or more of these languages either as a mother tongue or as a second or
business language. So these Languages are essential in multinational contexts and are important as classical
languages too. Many of these Languages are scattered around the world as their speakers are part of
diasporas. E.g.; Greek, Yiddish, Polish, Armenian, Romany, Kurdish, Italian, Punjabi, Gujarati etc.

The Home of the Indo-European Language:

The Proto-Indo-European language seems to have had a small vocabulary. This suggests a New
Stone Age or perhaps an early metal-using culture with farmers and domestic animals. The word for fish
was common to them but not the word for sea, so the territory of the Indo-Europeans appears to have had
bodies of water but not a coastline. They had words for animals such as bear or wolf. They had horses and
goats, and grain but not grapes. (They drank alcohol made from grain, and not wine, indicating they did not
live in a warm climate.) They belonged to a patriarchal society where the lineage was determined through
males only (because of a lack of words referring to the female's side of the family.) They also made use of a
decimal counting system by 10's, and formed words by compounding.
Despite all this, it is not known exactly where the speakers of Proto-Indo-European lived, but
linguists believe they originated somewhere in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, which is a vast area that stretches
from modern-day Ukraine to Kazakhstan. This region is often referred to as the "Kurgan homeland" or
"Steppe homeland" of the Proto-Indo-European language.
The Kurgan hypothesis, suggests that the speakers of Proto-Indo-European were a nomadic people
who lived in the Pontic-Caspian steppe around 4,500-2,500 BCE. They were said to be skilled horse riders
and charioteers, and they may have practiced a form of pastoralism, which involves moving herds of
livestock from place to place. Such evidence seems to point to an area in the northern part of Eastern
Europe. From this, the Indo-European Family is thought to have originated in the forests north of the Black
Sea (in what is now Ukraine) during the Neolithic period (about 7000 BC). These people began to migrate
between 3500 BC and 2500 BC, spreading west to Europe, south to the Mediterranean, north to
Scandinavia, and east to India. The identity and location of this culture has been the object of much
speculation.
Archaeological discoveries in the 1960s, however, suggest that it may have been located in the
steppes west of the Ural Mountains between 5000 and 3000 BC. The theory that the Proto-Indo-European
language (PIE) originated in the Ural Mountains region is known as the Uralic hypothesis. This theory
suggests that the early Indo-European languages developed in the region between the Ural Mountains and
the Caspian Sea around 4000-2500 BCE.
The Uralic hypothesis is based on linguistic and archaeological evidence, as well as genetic studies.
Supporters of this theory suggest that the PIE language developed in this region through a process of cultural
and linguistic interaction between the local populations and the Indo-European migrants who arrived there
from the east. One of the main pieces of evidence for the Uralic hypothesis is the presence of a group of
Uralic languages in the same region where the PIE language is believed to have originated. These languages,
which include Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian, share many linguistic features with the Indo-European
languages, suggesting that they evolved from a common ancestor.
 Archaeological evidence from the Ural Mountains region also supports the idea that there was
significant cultural exchange between the Indo-European migrants and the local populations. For example,
the Kurgan burial mounds found in the region are similar to those found in other areas where the Indo-
European languages spread, suggesting that the people who lived in this region were part of the same
cultural and linguistic group.
Some recent theories hold that PIE originated in Anatolia (now eastern Turkey) as early as 6000 BC.
The Anatolian hypothesis posits that the early Indo-European languages, including Hittite, were spoken in
Anatolia around 8,000-9,000 years ago, and that these languages spread to Europe and other parts of Asia
through migration and language shift. According to this theory, the spread of the Indo-European languages
was not due to the movements of pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian steppe, as suggested by the Kurgan
hypothesis, but rather to the spread of farming and agriculture.
One of the main pieces of evidence for the Anatolian hypothesis comes from the ancient Hittite
language, which was spoken in Anatolia from around 1600-1200 BCE. Hittite shares many similarities with
other Indo-European languages, such as Sanskrit and Greek, suggesting that they all evolved from a
common ancestor. Additionally, archaeological evidence from Anatolia shows that farming and agriculture
were widespread in the region around 9,000 years ago, which supports the idea that the Indo-European
languages may have originated there.
The Anatolian hypothesis and the Uralic hypothesis still remain subjects of debate among linguists
and archaeologists regarding the origin and spread of the Proto-Indo-European language. The exact location
and time period of the Proto-Indo-European homeland is still the subject of much debate among linguists
and archaeologists, but the Kurgan hypothesis remains one of the most widely accepted theories. PIE is
considered to have vanished soon after 2000 BC without leaving written records. At present the Indo-
European languages stretch from the Americas through Europe to North India.

Features of Proto-Indo-European:
It is believed that PIE had a limited vocabulary, but the language structure was rather complicated.
Simplicity and directness of expression are the index of development and ancient languages are often far
more complex and complicated than their descendants of the present day.
The similarities shared by the daughter languages are traceable to the Indo-European and can be
considered as its characteristic features. Thus, the personal pronouns in these languages bear a very close
resemblance. There is such similarity also in the case of the equivalents of the commonly used verbs be and
have and the words denoting common and close family relationships. For example, look at the words for
Modern English father:
Old English German Latin Sanskrit Old French
faeder vater pater pita fader
There is no such similarity in the case of words denoting more distant relationships, like aunt, uncle, cousin,
etc., probably because each group coined words for distant family relationships - long after the dispersal of
the ancient IE tribes. Again, cardinal numbers up to ten show close resemblance. For example, look at the
forms of the word three:
Old English German Latin Sanskrit Old French
þrī drei treis thraya trois
Above number ten, the resemblance no longer holds throughout, probably because at the time of the
dispersal they had only arrived at the stage of counting on fingers.
Not only the vocabulary, but the grammatical structure of the languages also showed certain
similarities. Grammatical categories could be classified into nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Personal
pronouns and the eight case forms showed similarity. Again, the etymology (or root) of most words could
often be traced to monosyllables. Eg., go in going, come in coming, sit in sitting
The PIE language was highly inflectional as words had many endings corresponding to cases.
Studies show that PIE is a language with many stop consonants, several similar to those of modern English,
but also has another set with a following aspirate: E.g. bh, dh, gh, gwh. IE had several varieties of the nasals
m and n, the liquids l and r, and the glides w, y, and schwa (/ə/). But it had only one unstopped consonant, s.
The vowels were a, e, i, o, u in long and short forms. As reconstructed, PIE words take forms like *bhrâter
brother, *yeug- to yoke, *wed- wet, leading to English water, Greek hùdôr (source of English hydrant), and
Russian voda. PIE verbs are thought to have followed a pattern similar to that of English sing, sang, sung,
varying the vowel to indicate tense. Verbs also took an inflection to indicate person, number, and mood. All
the major parts of speech were highly inflected, for three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and for
eight cases. Such inflections were chiefly suffixes, rarely prefixes, but both kinds of affixes were used for
word-formation. Compound words similar to modern English whitehouse, for instance, were common.
In general the evolution of the Indo-European languages displays a progressive loss of inflection.
Thus, Proto-Indo-European seems to have been highly inflected, as are ancient languages such as Sanskrit,
Avestan, and classical Greek; in contrast, comparatively modern languages, such as English, French, and
Persian, have moved toward an analytic system (using prepositional phrases, Word order and auxiliary
verbs).
To sum up, the Indo-European languages had a complicated language structure and a common
limited word stock.
The Indo-European diaspora
 The Indo-European diaspora refers to the migration and spread of the Indo-European peoples and
languages throughout Europe and parts of Asia. From the Pontic-Caspian steppe region, various groups of
Indo-European speakers migrated and spread out in different directions. Some groups headed westward into
Europe, while others migrated southward into the Middle East and eventually into India. Over time, these
groups developed their own distinct languages and cultures, leading to the development of the various
branches of the Indo-European language family.
The migration of the Indo-European peoples had a significant impact on the development of many
societies and cultures throughout history. Indo-European languages such as Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit were
used as literary and religious languages in various parts of the world, and their influence can still be seen in
modern languages such as English, Spanish, and Hindi.
The spread of the language families was originally to India in the east to Britain and Iceland in the
west. Exploration, migration, and colonialism have, however, taken the diaspora further afield. The
European colonial powers that spread throughout the world in the 16th to 20th centuries were predominantly
Indo-European in language and culture, and the legacies of colonialism continue to shape the political and
economic landscapes of many regions today.
The Western IE languages English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese are now major languages not
just of Europe but of the Americas, Africa, and even Asia, where English is the associate official language
of India, and English and Spanish are used in the Philippines. The Indo-European language family includes
some of the world's most widely spoken and influential languages. Smaller populations speaking IE
languages are everywhere, and IE languages such as French and English often serve as languages of
accommodation between speakers of other languages. Today, the Indo-European language family includes
more than 400 languages, making it one of the largest language families in the world.
Branches of the Indo-European Language Family
The Indo-European Family is grouped separately into ten branches, eight of which contain existing
languages. Two IE families are no longer represented among living languages: Tocharian in Central Asia,
and Anatolian in what is now eastern Turkey (once represented by Hittite). Some philologists point out to
the possible existence of another extinct family, Venetic, in Italy. Not all members of the surviving families,
moreover, are still living: Latin, Sanskrit and Old English are dead languages. The Indo-European language
families, according to the age of their oldest sizable texts are:
I. Anatolian
Now extinct, Anatolian languages were spoken during the 1st and 2nd millennia BCE in what is
presently Asian Turkey and northern Syria. This branch includes the language of the Hittite civilisation
which once ruled central Anatolia, fought the Ancient Egyptians and is mentioned in the Bible's Old
Testament. Other languages were Lydian (spoken by a people who ruled the south coast of Anatolia), Lycian
(spoken by a Hellenic culture along the western coastal regions), Luwian (spoken in ancient Troy) and
Palaic.
II. Indo-Iranian
Indo-Iranian comprises two main sub-branches, Indo-Aryan (Indic) and Iranian. The languages in
this family are predominant in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Iran, and its vicinity and also in areas
from the Black Sea to western China.
Iranian Branch
Iranian languages were spoken in the 1st millennium BCE in present-day Iran and Afghanistan and
also in the steppes to the north, from modern Hungary to East (Chinese) Turkistan (now Xinjiang). The only
well-known ancient varieties of Iranian languages are Avestan, now extinct, the sacred language of the
Zoroastrians (Parsis), and Old Persian, the language of the Achaemenid Empire.
The main language of this branch is Farsi (also called Iranian, Dari and Persian), the main language
of Iran and much of Afghanistan. Kurdish, the second largest of the Iranian languages, is a close relation
which is spoken in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. In Turkey it was banned until recently.
Pashto (also called Pushtu or Pakhto) is spoken in Afghanistan and parts of North West Pakistan.
Baluchi is spoken in the desert regions between Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. These languages are written
in the Nastaliq script, a derivative of Arabic writing. Ossetian is found in the Caucasus Mountains, north of
Georgia. Tadzhikis a close relative of Farsi, written in Cyrillic and is spoken in Tadzhikistan (of the former
USSR) as well as northern Afghanistan. Scythian is an extinct language of a warrior people who once lived
north of the Black Sea.
The Indo-Aryan/Indic Branch
The Indo-Aryan languages have been spoken in what is now northern and central India and Pakistan
since before 1000 BC. One of the oldest records of an Indo-Aryan language is Rigveda in Vedic Sanskrit, the
oldest of the sacred scriptures of India, dating roughly from 1000 BCE.
Most of the languages in this family are found in North India. Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages
in the family which gave rise to Pali, Ardhamagadhi and the ancestors of the modern North Indian
languages. Of the modern North Indian languages, Hindi and Urdu are very similar but differ in the script.
Hindi uses the Sanskrit writing system called Devanagari (writing of the Gods) and Urdu uses the Arabic
Nastaliq script. These two languages are found in North and Central India and Pakistan. Nepali is closely
related to Hindi.
Other languages in this family are Bengali (West Bengal as well as Bangladesh), Bhili (Central
India), Oriya (in Orissa), Marathi (in Maharashtra), Assamese (in Assam), Punjabi and Lahnda (from the
Punjab), Maithili and Maghadi (from Bihar), Kashmiri (Kashmir - written mainly in Nastaliq), Sindhi (the
Pakistan province of Sindh - also written in Nastaliq), Gujarati (Gujarat in western India), Konkani (in Goa,
an ex-Portuguese colony, uses both the Devanagari and Latin script), Sinhalese (Sri Lanka - uses its own
script derived from Pali), Maldivian (Maldives - with its own script based on Arabic). The most surprising
language in this branch is Romany, the language of the Roma (also known as Gypsies). The Roma migrated
to Europe from India. It is described as a kind of Indian hybrid: a central Indic (Hindustani) dialect that had
undergone partial convergence with northern Indic languages. It may have been carried through Persia into
Armenia and from there has spread through Europe even to both of the American continents.
Sanskrit had three genders as has Marathi; most modern Indic languages have two genders; Bengali
has none. The fascinating point about India is that the south Indian languages (like Tamil) are not Indo-
European. In other words, Hindi is related to English, Greek and French but is totally unrelated to Tamil
genetically.
III. Hellenic/Greek
Greek, despite its numerous dialects, has been a single language throughout its history. During more
than 3000 years of written history, Greek dialects never evolved into mutually incomprehensible languages.
It has been spoken in Greece since at least 1600 BCE and, in all probability, since the end of the 3rd
millennium BCE. Thus, Greek is one of the oldest Indo-European languages. The major forms were Doric
(Sparta), Ionic (Cos), Aeolic (Lesbos), and Attic (Athens).
The Ancient Greek of Homer—found in the epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, probably dating from
the 8th century BCE—are the oldest texts of any bulk. Because of Athens’ cultural supremacy in the 5th
century BCE it was Attic that became the standard literary language during the Classical period. Therefore,
the most famous Greek prose and poetry including the epics written in Classical times were in
Attic: Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato and Aristotle are just a
st
few of the authors who wrote in Attic. The New Testament was written in a form of 1 Century AD Greek
called Koine. This developed into the Greek of the Byzantine Empire. Modern Greek, the only extant
language in this branch, has developed from this.
Greek has three genders and four cases for nouns but no form of the verb infinitive. The language
has its own script, derived from Phoenician with the addition of symbols for vowels. It is one of the oldest
alphabets in the world and has led to the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. The Greek Alphabet is still used in
science and mathematics.
IV. Italic/Latin
The principal language of the Italic group is Latin, originally the speech of the city of Rome. The
various languages that have evolved from Latin in the different parts of the erstwhile Roman Empire are
known as the Romance or Romanic languages like Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, French etc.
Latin is one of the most important classical languages. Its alphabet (derived from the Greek alphabet)
is used by many languages of the world. Classical Latin is the form of Latin used by Roman authors like
Ovid, Cicero, Seneca, Pliny, and Marcus Aurelius. Latin was long used by the Catholic Church as their
means of communication. It was also the language of diplomacy and administration in Europe. It is still used
in scientific terminology throughout the world.
Italian and Portuguese are the closest modern major languages to Latin. Spanish has been influenced
by Arabic and Basque. French has moved farthest from Latin in pronunciation, only its spelling gives a clue
to its origins. French has many Germanic and Celtic influences. Portuguese and Spanish have been separate
for over a thousand years. The most widely spoken of these languages is Spanish. Apart from Spain, it is
spoken in most of Latin America (except in Portuguese speaking Brazil, Belize, Guyana etc.).
Latin had three genders and at least six cases for its nouns and a Subject-Object-Verb sentence
structure. Most modern Romance languages have only two genders, no cases and a Subject-Verb-Object
structure.
V. Germanic
The Germanic family comprises languages like English, German, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, Danish,
Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic. All of these have descended from a common ancestor Proto-Germanic
which was a dialect of Indo-European. These languages can again be grouped into three: EAST
GERMANIC OR GOTHIC which has only dead languages, NORTH GERMANIC OR NORSE
(Scandinavian) comprising Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic and WEST GERMANIC
which has languages like English, German, Dutch, and Frisian as its members
The oldest Germanic language of which much is known is the Gothic of the 4th century CE. Dutch
and German are the closest major languages related to English. An even closer relative is Frisian. Flemish
and Afrikaans are varieties of Dutch while Yiddish is a variety of German. Yiddish is written using the
Hebrew script. Three of the four (mainland) Scandinavian languages belong to this branch: (Danish,
Norwegian, and Swedish). Swedish and Norwegian have tones unusual in Indo-European languages (Tone
languages are languages in which the pitch or tone used when pronouncing a word can change its meaning.
For Example in Mandarin Chinese, the word "ma" can mean "hemp" (high rising tone), "horse" (low falling-
rising tone), or "scold" (high falling tone), depending on the tone used. Check out:
https://www.sayitinswedish.com/learning-center/swedish-pitch-accents/#.YNOFfOgzZPY). The fourth
Scandinavian language, Finnish, belongs to a different family. Icelandic is the least changed of the Germanic
Languages - being close to Old Norse. Gothic (Central Europe), Frankish (France), Lombardo (Danube
region), Visigoth (Iberian Peninsula) and Vandal (North Africa) are extinct languages from this branch. The
vast majority of the Germanic languages use the Latin alphabet.
German has a system of four cases and three genders for its nouns. The genders are masculine,
feminine and neuter. English has lost gender and case. Only a few words form their plurals like German (ox,
oxen and child, children). Most now add an -s, having been influenced by Norman French.
VI. Armenian/ Thracian
This branch is represented by a single modern language, Armenian spoken in Armenia and Nagorno-
Karabakh. Speakers of Armenian are recorded as being in what now constitutes eastern Turkey and Armenia
as early as the 6th century BCE, but the oldest Armenian texts date from the 5th century CE which is a
translation of the Bible in the language. There is a considerable Armenian literature, chiefly historical and
theological. The Armenians for several centuries were under Persian domination, and the vocabulary shows
such strong Iranian influence that Armenian was at one time regarded as an Iranian language. Numerous
contacts with Semitic languages, with Greek, and with Turkish have contributed further to give the
vocabulary a rich character.
Armenian has its own script. The language is rich in consonants. Nouns have 7 cases and the past
tense of verbs take an e- prefix like Greek. Three extinct languages from this branch are Dacian (or Daco-
Mysian - spoken in the ancient Balkan region of Dacia), Thracian and Phrygian (spoken in ancient Troy).
VII. The Tocharian Branch
The Tocharian languages, now extinct, were spoken in the Taklamakan Desert of the Tarim Basin (in
present day Xinjiang of north-western China) during the 1st millennium CE. Two distinct languages are
known, labelled A (East Tocharian, or Turfanian) and B (West Tocharian, or Kuchean).
Very little is known about this branch as only a few manuscripts dating from 600 AD are in
existence. The languages disappeared around the 8th century AD. The closest relatives of these languages
might be from the Celtic, Anatolian and Latin branches. Among all ancient Indo-European languages,
Tocharian was spoken farthest to the east but is a centum language rather than a satem language.
VIII. The Celtic Branch
The Celtic languages were at one time one of the most extensive groups in the Indo-European family.
At the beginning of the Christian era the Celts were found in Gaul and Spain, in Great Britain, in Western
Germany, and Northern Italy i.e., the greater part of Western Europe. A few centuries earlier their presence
extended even into Greece and Asia Minor (the Galatians). The languages originated in Central Europe and
though once they dominated Western Europe it is now the smallest branch. Very little of the Celtic of that
time and the ensuing centuries has survived, and this branch is known almost entirely from the Celtic
languages spoken in and near the British Isles, as recorded from the 8th century CE onward.
The branch consists of two sub-branches: Continental Celtic and Insular Celtic. In 50 BCE, Julius
Caesar conquered Gaul and as a result, the large Celtic-speaking area was absorbed by Rome. Latin became
the dominant language, and the Continental Celtic languages eventually died out. The chief Continental
language was Gaulish. Insular Celtic developed in the British Isles after Celtic-speaking tribes entered
around the 6th century BCE. In Ireland, Insular Celtic flourished, aided by the geographical isolation which
kept Ireland relatively safe from the Roman and Anglo-Saxon invasion. The only Celtic languages still
spoken today (Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Breton) all come from Insular Celtic. The vast
majority of the Celtic languages use the Latin alphabet.
The Celtic people migrated across to the British Isles over 2000 years ago. Later, when the Germanic
speaking Anglo Saxons arrived, the Celtic speakers were pushed into Wales (Welsh), Ireland (Irish Gaelic)
and Scotland (Scottish Gaelic). One group of Celts moved back to France. Their language became Breton
spoken in the Brittany region of France. Breton is closer to Welsh than to French. Other Celtic languages
have become extinct. These include Cornish (Cornwall in England), Gaulish (France), Cumbrian (Wales),
Manx (Isle of Man), Pictish (Scotland) and Galatian (spoken in Anatolia by the Galatians mentioned in the
New Testament).
IX. The Balto-Slavic Branch
The Balto-Slavic languages are confined to Eastern Europe. The two different branches are Baltic
and Slavic. The grouping of Baltic and Slavic into a single branch is somewhat controversial, but the
exclusively shared features outweigh the differences.
Slavic Branch
The oldest language in this branch is Bulgarian though the most important is Russian. Others include
Polish, Kashubian (spoken in parts of Poland), Sorbian (spoken in parts of eastern Germany), Czech,
Slovak, Slovene, Macedonian, Bosnian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian. In writing these languages generally,
the Catholic people use the Latin alphabet while the Orthodox use the Cyrillic alphabet which is derived
from the Greek. Indeed some of the languages are very similar differing only in the script used (Croatian and
Serbian are virtually the same language). The Slavic languages are famed for their consonant clusters and
large number of cases for nouns (up to seven). Many of the languages have three numbers for verbs:
singular, dual and plural.
Baltic Branch
Only two Baltic languages survive today: Latvian and Lithuanian. Lithuanian is one of the oldest of
the Indo-European languages. Its study is important in determining the origins and evolution of the family.
Lithuanian and Latvian both use the Latin script and have tones. Lithuanian has three numbers: singular,
dual and plural. Prussian is an extinct language from this branch.
X. Albanian/Illyric
Albanian is a small branch of the Indo-European family spoken in the Northwest of Greece on the
eastern coast of the Adriatic. The ancient Illyric and Mesapian languages, spoken in parts of Italy, are
considered by some to be extinct members of this branch. Modern Albanian, the only language in this
branch today, is possibly a remnant of Illyrian, a language spoken in ancient times in the north-western
Balkans, but we have too little knowledge of this early tongue to be sure.
Albanian has two dialects that have been diverging for 1000 years. Geg is spoken in the north of
Albania and Kosovo (Kosova). Tosk is spoken in southern Albania and North West Greece.
Satem and Centum languages
The languages of the IE family have generally been divided into two groups, the Centum languages
(the Western group) and the Satem languages (The Eastern group): This classification is based on the
development of certain sound changes in some of the languages of the family. In the Eastern branches
certain consonants had differences in their development from those in the Western group. The Indo-
European velar plosive consonants /k/ and / ɡ / developed into alveolar fricative /s/ or a sh-sound in the
Eastern group. At the same time, in the Western group /k/ and / ɡ / were retained as velar plosives. For
instance, *kmtom the IE form for the word hundred developed into shatem in Sanskrit (which represents the
Eastern group), /k/ becoming /sh/ or as satem as in Avestan and sto in Russian , thus, /k/ becoming /s/ and
into centum in Latin (which represents the Western group), retaining the /k/. Further examples:
Latin pecu Sanskrit pasu
Greek deka Sanskrit dasha
On the basis of this development, the satem languages are :- Indo-Iranian, including modern Persian
and such Indic languages as Bengali, Gujarati, and Hindi, Armenian/Thracian, represented by modern
Armenian, Albanian/Illyrian, represented by modern Albanian and Balto-Slavonic, including modern
Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, and Serbo-Croat. The rest are centum languages, which incudes
Hellenic, Italic, Celtic and Germanic. The discovery of Tocharian, deciphered in this century, the
easternmost IE language, being located in China, is a challenge to this theory as it is a centum language
though geographically it belongs to the satem area. The Anatolian branch is neither Satem nor Centum, as it
does not exhibit the Satem-Centum split found in other branches of Indo-European.

| Page