Dotted/striped areas indicate wheremultilingualism is common.The approximate present-day distribution of Indo-European languages within the Americas by country: Romance:
This is a list of languages in theIndo-European language family. It contains a large number of individual languages, together spoken by roughly half the world's population.
TheIndo-European languages include some 449 (SIL estimate, 2018 edition[1]) languages spoken by about 3.5 billion people or more (roughly half of the world population). Most of the major languages belonging to language branches and groups inEurope, and western and southernAsia, belong to the Indo-Europeanlanguage family. This is thus the biggest language family in the world by number of mother tongue speakers (but not by number of languages: by this measure it is only the 3rd or 5th biggest). Eight of the top ten biggest languages, by number of native speakers, are Indo-European. One of these languages, English, is thede facto worldlingua franca, with an estimate of over one billion second language speakers.Indo-European language family has 10 known branches or subfamilies, of which eight are living and two are extinct. Most of the subfamilies or linguistic branches in this list contain many subgroups and individual languages. The relationships between these branches (how they are related to one another and branched from the ancestral proto-language) are a matter of further research and not yet fully known. There are some individual Indo-European languages that are unclassified within the language family; they are not yet classified in a branch and could constitute a separate branch.The 449 Indo-European languages identified in theSIL estimate, 2018 edition,[1] are mostly living languages. If all the known extinct Indo-European languages are added, they number more than 800 or close to one thousand. This list includes all known Indo-European languages, living and extinct.
The distinction between a language and a dialect is not clear-cut and simple: in many areas there is adialect continuum, with transitional dialects and languages. Further, there is no agreed standard criterion for what amount of differences invocabulary,grammar,pronunciation andprosody are required to constitute a separate language, as opposed to a mere dialect.Mutual intelligibility can be considered, but there are closely related languages that are also mutual intelligible to some degree, even if it is an asymmetric intelligibility. Or there may be cases where between three dialects, A, B, and C, A and B are mutually intelligible, B and C are mutually intelligible, but A and C are not. In such circumstances grouping the three dielects becomes impossible. Because of this, in this list, several dialect groups and some individual dialects of languages are shown (in italics), especially if a language is or was spoken by a large number of people and over a large land area, but also if it has or had divergent dialects.
The ancestral population and language,Proto-Indo-Europeans that spokeProto-Indo-European, are estimated to have lived about 4500 BCE (6500 BP). At some point in time, starting about 4000 BCE (6000 BP), this population expanded throughmigration andcultural influence. This started a complex process of population blend or population replacement,acculturation andlanguage change of peoples in many regions of western and southernEurasia.[2] This process gave origin to many languages and branches of this language family.By around 1000 BCE, there were many millions of Indo-European speakers, and they lived in a vast geographical area which covered most of western and southernEurasia (including westernCentral Asia).In the following two millennia the number of speakers of Indo-European languages increased even further.Indo-European languages continued to be spoken in large land areas, although most of western Central Asia and Asia Minor were lost to other language families (mainly Turkic) due to Turkic expansion, conquests and settlement (after the middle of the first millennium AD and the beginning and middle of the second millennium AD respectively) and also to Mongol invasions and conquests (which changed Central Asia ethnolinguistic composition). Another land area lost to non-Indo-European languages was today's Hungary, due to Magyar/Hungarian (Uralic language speakers) conquest and settlement.However, from about AD 1500 onwards, Indo-European languages expanded their territories toNorth Asia (Siberia), throughRussian expansion, andNorth America,South America,Australia andNew Zealand as the result of the age ofEuropean discoveries and European conquests through the expansions of the Portuguese, Spanish, French, English and the Dutch. (These peoples had the biggest continental or maritime empires in the world and their countries were major powers.)The contact between different peoples and languages, especially as a result ofEuropean colonization, also gave origin to the manypidgins,creoles andmixed languages that are mainly based in Indo-European languages (many of which are spoken in island groups and coastal regions).
Late Proto-Indo-European (Last version of indo-European as a spoken language before splitting into several languages that originated in the regional dialects that diverged in time, and in space, withIndo-European migrations; these languages were the direct ancestors of today's subfamilies or "branches" of descendant languages) (larger clades of Indo-European than the individual subfamilies or the way individual subfamilies are related to each other are both as-of-yet unresolved issues)
Although all Indo-European languages descend from acommon ancestor calledProto-Indo-European, the kinship between the subfamilies or branches (large groups of more closely related languages within the language family), that descend from other more recentproto-languages, is not the same because there are subfamilies that are closer or further, and they did not split-off at the same time, the affinity or kinship of Indo-European subfamilies or branches between themselves is still an unresolved and controversial issue and being investigated.However, there is some consensus that Anatolian was the first group of Indo-European (branch) to split-off from all the others and Tocharian was the second in which that happened.[3]Using a mathematical analysis borrowed from evolutionary biology,Donald Ringe andTandy Warnow propose the following tree of Indo-European branches:[4]
The list below followsDonald Ringe,Tandy Warnow and Ann Taylor classification tree for Indo-European branches.[5] quoted in Anthony, David W. (2007),The Horse, the Wheel and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, Princeton University Press. The Indo-European phylogenetic tree of subfamilies or branches is also based in Chang, Chundra & Hall 2015, pp. 199–200 and Hyllested & Joseph 2022, p. 241.
Tocharian languages:A (blue),B (red) andC (green) in the Tarim Basin.[11] Tarim oasis towns are given as listed in theBook of Han (c. 2nd century BC). The areas of the squares are proportional to population.
Armenian dialects, according to Adjarian (1909) (before 1st World War and Armenian Genocide). In many regions of the contiguous area shown in the map, Armenian speakers were the majority or a significant minority.Modern geographical distribution of theArmenian language.
Modern Greek dialects until 1923[21]Anatolian Greek until 1923.Demotic in yellow.Pontic in orange.Cappadocian in green. Green dots indicate Cappadocian-Greek-speaking villages in 1910.[22]The distribution ofmajor modern Greek dialect areas.
Iron Age Italy (c.500 B.C.).Italic languages in green colours.Length of the Roman rule and the Romance Languages[34]Romance languages in Europe (major dialect groups are also shown).European extent of Romance languages in the 20th centuryEastern and Western Romance areas split by theLa Spezia–Rimini Line; Southern Romance is represented by Sardinian as an outlier.Romance languages in the World. Countries and sub-national entities where one or more Romance languages are spoken. Dark colours: First language, Light colours: Official or Co-Official language; Very Light colours: Spoken by a significant minority as first or second language. Blue:French; Green:Spanish; Orange:Portuguese; Yellow:Italian; Red:Romanian.
Asturian (Asturianu) andLeonese (Llionés) /Asturleonese(Asturllionés) (the division between Asturian and Leonese is extra-linguistic, dialectal varieties mainly form an east to west division pattern with north to south strips, tilted towards southwest in eastern and central varieties, and not between Asturias and Leon, only after that there is a distinction between asturian and leonese varieties)
A map of the modern distribution of theCeltic languages. Red:Welsh; Purple:Cornish; Black:Breton; Green:Irish; Blue:Scottish Gaelic: Yellow:Manx. Areas where languages overlap are shown in stripes.
Germanic languages and main dialect groups in Europe after 1945.Germanic languages in the World. Countries and sub-national entities where one or more Germanic languages are spoken. Dark Red: First language; Red: Official or Co-Official language, Pink: Spoken by a significant minority as second language.
Area ofBalto-Slavic dialect continuum with proposed material cultures correlating to speakers Balto-Slavic in Bronze Age .Red dots= archaic Slavic hydronyms.Political map of Europe with countries where aSlavic language is a national language marked in shades of green and where aBaltic language is a national language marked in light orange. Wood green representsEast Slavic languages, pale green representsWest Slavic languages, and sea green representsSouth Slavic languages. Contemporary Baltic languages are all from the same group:Eastern BalticBaltic languages (extinct languages shown in stripes).Slavic languages in Europe . Areas where languages overlap are shown in stripes.Russian Language – Map of all the areas where theRussian language is the language spoken by the majority of the population. Russian is the biggestSlavic language both in number offirst language speakers and in geographical area where the language is spoken .
Geographic distribution of modernIndo-Iranian languages. Blue, dark purple and green colour shades:Iranic languages. Dark pink:Nuristani languages. Red, light purple and orange colour shades:Indo-Aryan languages. Areas where languages overlap are shown in stripes.
Present-day geographical distribution of the majorIndo-Aryan language groups.Romani,Domari,Kholosi andLomavren are outside the scope of the map. Colours indicate the branches – yellow isEastern, purple isDardic, blue isNorthwestern, red isSouthern, green isWestern, brown isNorthern and orange isCentral. Data is from"The Indo Aryan Languages" as well as census data and previous linguistic maps. Dardic
Romani languages and dialects in Europe. Romani languages are part of theIndo-Aryan branch ofIndo-European languages but are spoken out of theIndian Subcontinent. They are related to theDomari languages and are scattered and minority languages in all regions, overlapping with other peoples and their languages in Europe. The Domari and Romani languages are spoken in a vast geographical area fromSouthwest Asia toEurope andNorth Africa but are minoritary and scattered in all the regions in part becauseDomari andRomani speakers, theDoma and theRoma, were traditionallynomadic peoples.
^The inclusion of Wakhi among the Pamir languages is debated. Some scholars place it within the Pamir branch, others relate it more closely to Saka.[56]
^abAnthony, David W. (2007),The Horse, the Wheel and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, Princeton University Press
^Ringe, Don; Warnow, Tandy.; Taylor, Ann. (2002). 'Indo-European and Computational Cladistics',Transactions of the Philological Society, n.º 100/1, 59-129.
^Kloekhorst, Alwin (2022). "Anatolian". In Olander, Thomas (ed.). The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108758666. ISBN 978-1-108-49979-8. S2CID 161016819
^Krause, Todd B.; Slocum, Jonathan. "Tocharian Online: Series Introduction". University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
^Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009), Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Asia from the Bronze Age to the Present, Princeton University Press,ISBN978-0-691-15034-5.
^Voynikov, Zhivko. (?).Some ancient Chinese names in East Turkestan and Central Asia and the Tocharian question.
^Dolatian, Hossep (2024). Adjarian's Armenian dialectology (1911): Translation and commentary. Berlin: Language Science Press. ISBN 978-3-96110-489-5.
^"A Documentation of the Zok Language (otherwise known as the Armenian dialect of Agulis) | Endangered Languages Archive". www.elararchive.org. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
^Vaux, Bert (2007). Zok: The Armenian dialect of Agulis. p. 2.
^Bert Vaux, "Homshetsma, The language of the Armenians of Hamshen", in Hovann Simonian (2007). The Hemshin: History, Society and Identity in the Highlands of Northeast Turkey. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-79830-7.
^Roger D. Woodard (2008), "Greek dialects", in:The Ancient Languages of Europe, ed. R. D. Woodard, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 51.
^Nikolaos G. Kontosopoulos, "Dialects and Idioms of the Modern Greek", Papyros-Larousse-Britannica (in Greek), 2007, pp. 149–150. ISBN 978-960-6715-39-6.
^Dawkins, R.M. 1916. Modern Greek in Asia Minor. A study of dialect of Silly, Cappadocia and Pharasa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
^Horrocks, Geoffrey (2014).Greek: A history of the language and its speakers, 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-118-78515-7.
^Roger D. Woodard (2008), "Greek dialects", in: The Ancient Languages of Europe, ed. R. D. Woodard, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 51.
^Hadodo, M. J. (2020).Cosmopolitan Constantinopolitans: Istanbul Greek Language and Identity [Doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh]. University of Pittsburgh Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. 246 p.; 41-43. map
^Peter Trudgill (2003):Modern Greek dialects. A preliminary Classification. Journal of Greek Linguistics 4: 54–64
^Petros Karatsareas. (2013):Understanding diachronic change in Cappadocian Greek: The dialectological perspective. Journal of Historical Linguistics 3:2 (2013), 192–229. doi 10.1075/jhl.3.2.02kar
^ Guardiano, Cristina; Stavrou, Melita (2019-06-12). "Adjective-Noun combinations in Romance and Greek of Southern Italy: Polydefiniteness revisited". Journal of Greek Linguistics. 19 (1): 3–57. doi:10.1163/15699846-01901001. hdl:11380/1188377. ISSN 1569-9846
^Nicholas, Nick (2019). "A critical lexicostatistical examination of Ancient and Modern Greek and Tsakonian". Journal of Applied Linguistics and Lexicography. 1 (1): 18–68. doi:10.33910/2687-0215-2019-1-1-18-68
^"Ancient Macedonian".MultiTree: A Digital Library of Language Relationships. Archived fromthe original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved28 March 2016.
^Adelina ÇERPJA and Anila ÇEPANI, "Albanian dialect classifications" in Dialectologia. Special issue, 11 (2023), 51-87. ISSN: 2013-2247
^Baldi, Benedetta; Savoia, Leonardo M. (2017). "Cultura e identità nella lingua albanese" [Culture and Identity in the Albanian Language]. LEA - Lingue e Letterature d'Oriente e d'Occidente. 6 (6): 45–77. doi:10.13128/LEA-1824-484x-22325. ISSN 1824-484X.
^Bereznay, András (2011).Erdély történetének atlasza [Atlas of the History of Transylvania] (in Hungarian). Méry Ratio. p. 63.ISBN978-80-89286-45-4.
^Harm, Volker,"Elbgermanisch", "Weser-Rhein-Germanisch" und die Grundlagen des Althochdeutschen, in Nielsen; Stiles (eds.), Unity and Diversity in West Germanic and the Emergence of English, German, Frisian and Dutch, North-Western European Language Evolution, vol. 66, pp. 79–99
^C. A. M. Noble:Modern German Dialects. Peter Lang, New York / Berne / Frankfort on the Main, p. 131
^Oxford English Dictionary, "Holland, n. 1," etymology.
^Hendricks, Frank . "The nature and context of Kaaps: a contemporary, past and future perspective".[1]Archived 2022-10-23 at theWayback MachineMultilingual Margins: A Journal of Multilingualism from the Periphery.3 (2): 6–39.doi:10.14426/mm.v3i2.38.ISSN 2221-4216.S2CID 197552885.
^Simpson, St John (2017). "The Scythians. Discovering the Nomad-Warriors of Siberia". Current World Archaeology. 84: 16–21. "nomadic people made up of many different tribes thrived across a vast region that stretched from the borders of northern China and Mongolia, through southern Siberia and northernKazakhstan, as far as the northern reaches of the Black Sea. Collectively they were known by their Greek name: the Scythians. They spoke Iranian languages..."
^"The Avestan texts contain no historical allusions and can therefore not be dated exactly, but Old Avestan is a language closely akin to the oldest Indic language, used in the oldest parts of theRigveda, and should therefore probably be dated to about the same time. This date is also somewhat debated, though within a relatively small time span, and it seems probable that the oldest Vedic poems were composed over several centuries around the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. (see, e.g., Witzel, 1995)", quoted inhttps://iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-vi1-earliest-evidenceArchived 2023-09-21 at theWayback Machine
^"Young Avestan is grammatically close to Old Persian, which ceased being spoken in the 5th-4th centuries B.C.E. These two languages were therefore probably spoken throughout the first half of the first millennium B.C.E. (see, e.g., Skjærvø, 2003-04, with further references)." inhttps://iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-vi1-earliest-evidenceArchived 2023-09-21 at theWayback Machine
^The Young Avesta contains a few geographical names, all belonging to roughly the area between Chorasmia and the Helmand, that is, the modern Central Asian republics and Afghanistan (see, e.g., Skjærvø, 1995; Witzel, 2000). We are therefore entitled to conclude that Young Avestan reflects the language spoken primarily by tribes from that area. The dialect position of the language also indicates that the language of the Avesta must have belonged to, or at least have been transmitted by, tribes from northeastern Iran (the change of proto-Iranian *-āḭā/ă- > *-ayā/ă- and *ǰīwa- > *ǰuwa- "live," for instance, is typical of Sogdian, Khotanese, Pashto, etc. inhttps://iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-vi1-earliest-evidenceArchived 2023-09-21 at theWayback Machine).
^It was long thought that Avestan represented "Old Bactrian", but this notion had "rightly fallen into discredit by the end of the 19th century", in Gershevitch, Ilya (1983), "Bactrian Literature", in Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.),Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, pp. 1250–1258, ISBN 0-511-46773-7.
^Morgenstierne, Georg (1974).Etymological Vocabulary of the Shughni Group. Oslo: Norsk Videnskaps-Akademi. p. 34.The Darwozi dialect of Tajik preserves words such asfraun kardan ("to pour water on") andfrakondan ("to wash, rinse"), which are probably borrowed from the Shughni group (ŠGr), cf. Shughnifirêwtow ("to wash, rinse").
^Endangered Language Alliance."Wakhi". Endangered Language Alliance. Retrieved2025-09-08.Wakhi is usually classified as a Pamir language ... but its relationship to the Pamiri group has been questioned by more recent work.
^See also: Ancient Kamboja, People & the Country, 1981, p 278, These Kamboj People, 1979, pp 119–20, K. S. Dardi etc.
^Sir Thomas H. Holdich, in his classic book, (The Gates of India, p 102-03), writes that the Aspasians (Aspasioi) represent the modern Kafirs. But the modern Kafirs, especially the Siah-Posh Kafirs (Kamoz/Camoje, Kamtoz) etc are considered to be modern representatives of the ancient Kambojas.
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