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Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and
dialects.
There are about 445 Indo-European languages.
The Indo-European family includes most major current languages of Europe, and parts
of Western,Central and South Asia.
Using the method of internal reconstruction an earlier stage, called Indo-European,
has been proposed.
This proposed language is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European
languages.

A map showing the approximate present-day distribution of the Indo-


European branches within their homelands of Europe and Asia:
The following legend is given in the chronological order of the earliest surviving written attestations of each branch
Hellenic(Greek)
Indo-Iranian
Italic (includes Romance)
Celtic
Germanic
Armenian
Balto-Slavic (Baltic)
Balto-Slavic (Slavic)
Albanian
Non-Indo-European languages Dotted/striped areas indicate where multilingualism is common.
Indo-European migrations
(Diversification)

Scheme of Indo-European migrations from ca. 4000 to


1000 BC (according to the Kurgan hypothesis, the most
widely accepted solution to explain the origins and
spread of the Indo-European languages)

Indo-European languages ca. 3500 BC

Indo-European languages ca. 2500 BC

Indo-European languages ca. 1500 BC

Indo-European languages ca. 500 BC

Indo-European languages ca. 500 AD


Modern-day distribution
of Indo-European languages
Today, Indo-European languages are spoken on all inhabited continents, by almost 3 billion native
speakers. The largest number by far for any recognized language family.

Of the 20 languages with the largest numbers of native speakers, according to Ethnologue (a
catalogue of more than 6700 languages spoken in 228 countries), 11 are Indo-
European: Spanish, English,Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Punjabi, German, French, Marathi,
and Urdu, accounting for over 1.7 billion native speakers.

Following centuries of European colonization, many modern countries now have an Indo-
European language as their official language.

The approximate present-day distribution of Indo-European languages within the Americas by


country:
ROMANCE: Spanish Portuguese French
GERMANIC: English Dutch

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