Indo-European language

Examples of Indo-European language in the following topics:

• Sanskrit

  • One of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial documentation exists, Sanskrit is believed to have been the general language of the greater Indian Subcontinent in ancient times.
  • Sanskrit traces its linguistic ancestry to Proto-Indo-Iranian and ultimately to Proto-Indo-European languages, meaning that it can be traced historically back to the people who spoke Indo-Iranian, also called the Aryan languages, and the Indo-European languages, a family of several hundred related languages and dialects.
  • Today, an estimated 46% of humans speak some form of Indo-European language.
  • Sanskrit is a major feature of the academic linguistic field of Indo-European studies, which focuses on both extinct and current Indo-European languages and can be studied in major universities around the world.
  • Sanskrit evolved from Proto-Indo-European languages and was used to write the Vedas, the Hindu religious texts compiled between 1500-500 BCE.

• Introduction to Human Language

  • Human language is recursive.
  • Speaking is the auditory form of language, but writing and sign language are visual forms.
  • Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the name for the common ancestor of the Indo-European language family.
  • A language family is a group of languages descended from a common language.
  • The Indo-European language family contains 445  current languages, and all of them are thought to have descended from PIE.

• The Indo-Aryan Migration and the Vedic Period

  • Many have rejected the claim of Indo-Aryan origin outside of India entirely, claiming the Indo-Aryan people and languages originated in India.
  • The most prominent of these groups spoke Indo-European languages and were called Aryans, or "noble people" in the Sanskrit language.
  • Wheeler, who was Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1944 to 1948, suggested that a nomadic, Indo-European tribe called the Aryans suddenly overwhelmed and conquered the Indus River Valley.
  • The Kurgan Hypothesis is the most widely accepted scenario of Indo-European origins.
  • It postulates that people of a so-called Kurgan Culture, a grouping of the Yamna or Pit Grave culture and its predecessors, of the Pontic Steppe were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language.

• Expansion and Decline of the Kushan Empire

  • The Kushans were one of five branches of the Yuezhi confederation, an Indo-European nomadic people.
  • The Yuezhi lived in the grasslands of eastern Central Asia's Tarim Basin, in modern-day Xinjiang, China, possibly speaking varieties of Indo-European languages, until they were driven west by the Xiongnu in 176–160 BCE (Before Common Era).
  • Although philosophy, art and science developed within its borders, the only textual record we have of the Kushan Empire's history comes from inscriptions and accounts in other languages, particularly Chinese.
  • In 248 CE they were defeated again by Persians, who deposed the western dynasty and replaced them with Persian vassals – cities or kingdoms that forfeited foreign policy independence in exchange for full autonomy and in some cases formal tribute – known as the Indo-Sassanids, or Kushanshas.
  • The last of the Kushan and Sassanian kingdoms were eventually overwhelmed by the Hepthalites, another Indo-European people from the north.

• The Hittites

  • The Hittite language was a member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family.
  • Despite the use of Hatti as the core of their territory, the Hittites should be distinguished from the Hattians, an earlier people who inhabited the same region (until the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE), and spoke a different language, possibly in the Northwest Caucasian language group known as Hattic.
  • In earlier times, Indo-European elements may still be clearly discerned.

• The Origins of Etruria

  • Ruling over this pantheon of lesser deities were higher ones that seem to reflect the Indo-European system: Tin or Tinia, the sky, Uni his wife (Juno), and Cel, the earth goddess.
  • Knowledge of the Etruscan language is still far from complete.
  • It is believed that the Etruscans spoke a non-Indo-European language, probably related to what is called the Tyrsenian language family, which is itself an isolate family, or in other words, unrelated directly to other known language groups.

• The Hittites

  • These were written either in the Semitic Mesopotamian Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, the diplomatic language of the time, or in the various dialects of the Hittite confederation.
  • In the eighteenth century BCE, Anitta, his son and successor, made the Hittite speaking city of Neša into one of his capitals and adopted the Hittite language for his inscriptions there.
  • The Bronze Age Hittite and Luwian dialects evolved into the sparsely attested Lydian, Lycian and Carian languages.
  • In earlier times, Indo-European elements, particularly cosmic symbology , may be discerned.

• The Romans

  • What is known is that they all belonged to the Indo-European linguistic family, which gave rise to the Romance (Latin-derived) and Germanic languages.
  • There is little record of the Sabine language.
  • Existing scholarship classifies Sabine as a member of the Umbrian group of Italic languages and identifies approximately 100 words that are either likely Sabine or that possess Sabine origin.

• The Germanic Tribes

  • The Germanic peoples (also called Teutonic, Suebian, or Gothic in older literature) are an ethno-linguistic Indo-European group of Northern European origin.
  • They are identified by their use of Germanic languages, which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.
  • The Germanic tribes were chronicled by Rome's historians as having had a critical impact on the course of European history during the Roman-Germanic wars, particularly at the historic Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, where the vanquishment of three Roman legions at the hands of Germanic tribal warriors precipitated the Roman Empire's strategic withdrawal from Magna Germania.
  • As a linguistic group, modern Germanic peoples include the Afrikaners, Austrians, Danes, Dutch, English, Flemish, Frisians, Germans, Icelanders, Lowland Scots, Norwegians, Swedes and others (including diaspora populations, such as some groups of European Americans).
  • In Northernmost Europe in what now constitutes the European plains of Denmark and southern Scandinavia is where the Germanic peoples most likely originated; a region that remained "remarkably stable" as far back as the Neolithic Age, when humans first began controlling their environment through the use of agriculture and the domestication of animals.

• Indian Architecture under British Imperialism

  • The fusion of Indian traditions with European style at this time became evident in architectural styles.
  • Numerous European countries invaded India and created architectural styles reflective of their ancestral and adopted homes.
  • The Indo-Saracenic Revival (also known as Indo-Gothic, Mughal-Gothic, Neo-Mughal, or Hindu-Gothic) was an architectural style and movement by British architects in the late 19th century.
  • It drew elements from native Indo-Islamic and Indian architecture and combined them with Gothic revival and Neo-Classical styles favored in Britain.
  • This municipal building in Mumbai reflects the Indo-Saracenic architecture of its time.