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Indo-European'''
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Indo-European languages
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Anatolian |
Indo-Iranian |
Greek |
Italic
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Celtic |
Germanic |
Armenian
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Balto-Slavic |
Tocharian |
Albanian
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Proto-Indo-European
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Language |
Society |
Religion
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Kurgan |
Yamna |
Aryan
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Indo-European studies
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'''Indo-European''' is originally a linguistic term, referring to the
Indo-European language family. By extension, it became a collective name for cultures and religions associated with these languages. Hypothetically, these cultures arose from the expansion of an ancient people, the '''
Proto-Indo-Europeans''', possibly originating from somewhere around the
Black Sea region from the
5th millennium BC onward.
==Language Family==
''See main article
Indo-European languages.''
The Indo-European language family is attested in twelve branches, some of them extinct, with a historical distribution over most of
Europe,
Anatolia,
Iran,
Punjab and parts of
Central Asia (
East Turkistan). During the age of
colonialism, Indo-European languages spread from Europe to all continents, and today there are over three billion speakers of Indo-European languages, distributed over all the world.
The languages are traditionally separated into a
Satem group in the east (
Balto-Slavic,
Indo-Iranian,
Armenian) and a
Centum group in the west (
Greek,
Italic,
Celtic,
Germanic), according to their different treatment of PIE
velar sounds. The two groups are considered
paraphyletic, i.e. there are no separate
proto-languages for each group and their common characteristics are likely due to prolongued contact because of their geographical proximity. Also, there is evidence that the
Anatolian,
Tocharian and
Albanian branches belong to neither of the two groups.
==Comparative Linguistics==
''See main article
Indo-European studies.''
The existence of the Proto-Indo-Europeans has been inferred by
comparative linguistics. The discovery of the genetic relationship of the various Indo-European languages goes back to
William Jones, a
British judge in
India, who in
1782 observed the strong affinity of
Sanskrit,
Greek and
Latin.
"Indo-European", the term now current in English, was coined in
1813 by the British scholar Sir
Thomas Young.
At first, the related languages were simply compared, with no attempt at reconstruction.
August Schleicher was the first scholar to compose a tentative text in the extinct "common source" Jones had predicted. The reconstructed
Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) represents, by definition, the common language of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.
In the
20th century, great progress was made due to the discovery of more language material belonging to the Indo-European family, and by advances in comparative linguistics, by scholars such as
Ferdinand de Saussure.
==Proto-Indo-Europeans==
''See main article
Proto-Indo-European''.
===Origins===
The scholars of the
19th century that originally tackled the question of the original homeland of the Indo-Europeans (also called ''
Urheimat'' after the German term), were essentially confined to linguistic evidence. A rough localization was attempted by reconstructing the names of plants and animals as well as the culture and technology. The scholarly opinions became basically divided between a European hypothesis, positing migration from Europe to Asia, and an Asian hypothesis, holding that the migration took place in the opposite direction.
However, from its early days, the controversy was tainted by
romantic,
nationalistic notions of heroic invaders at best and by
imperialist and
racist agendas at worst. The question is still the source of much contention.
In the twentieth century,
Marija Gimbutas (
1956) created a modern variation on the traditional invasion theory (the
Kurgan hypothesis) which regards the Indo-Europeans as a
nomadic tribe in what is today the
Ukraine, expanding in several waves during the
3rd millennium BC.
Colin Renfrew (
1987) is the main propagator for another theory according to which the Indo-Europeans were farmers in
Asia Minor who migrated peacefully into southeast Europe from around
7000 BC.
The rise of
Archaeogenetic evidence which uses genetic analysis to trace migration patterns added new elements to the puzzle.
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza recently used genetic evidence to in some ways combine Gimbutas' and Renfrew's theory.
===Society===
''See main articles
Proto-Indo-European society,
Proto-Indo-European religion.''
The Proto-Indo-Europeans were a
patrilineal tribal society, probably semi-nomadic and dependent on animal husbandry. At the head of a tribe was a sacral king, assisted by a class of
priests in ritual and sacrifice. A settlement consisted of several households, each headed by a patriarch. Alongside ordered society there was a warrior class of young men without property associated with wolves or dogs.
PIE religion was centered on sacrificial rituals where animals were slaughtered to establish good relations with the gods. The chief god of the Indo-European pantheon, probably mirroring the position of the king in human society, was the sky-god ''*
Dyeus''.
