Indo-European

A group of languages from which most modern European languages are derived, as well as Indian Sanskrit and the Farsi language of Iran. It is assumed that the dispersal of these languages must have occurred through large-scale migrations of people. Attempts have been made to identify the carriers of Indo-European languages with groups recognizable in the archaeological record. When the groups were literate or are recorded in other people's documents, as with the Hittites and the Luwians in Asia Minor, it is possible to establish that the groups were indeed Indo-European speakers. One school maintains that the original homeland was in the south Russian steppes in the 5th millennium BC and spread into Europe with the Single Grave, Corded Ware, and Globular Amphorae groups. Indo-European was first recognized by Sir William Jones in 1786. It includes most of the modern European languages (Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, Greek, Albanian) and modern Indo-Iranian (Persian, Hindi).

Name of the group of languages from which most modem European languages are derived, as are the Indian Sanskrit and its descendants and the Farsi language of Iran. Since it is assumed that the dispersal of the languages of this group must have occurred through large-scale migrations of people, many attempts have been made to identify the carriers of Indo-European languages with groups recognizable in the archaeological record. This is a valid exercise when the groups in question were literate or are recorded in other people’s documents, as with the Hittites and the Luwians in Asia Minor, because it is possible to establish that the groups were indeed Indo-European speakers. In the case of non-literate peoples the exercise is a much more tricky one, as the only clues to the linguistic affiliations of prehistoric groups lie in the language of later groups in the area, assumed to be their direct descendants. Many attempts have been made to document the spread of Indo-Europeans into Europe. One school maintains that the original homeland was in the south Russian steppes (perhaps recognizable in the Kurgan culture) and spread into Europe with the Single Grave, Corded Ware and Globu lar Amphorae groups. Other authorities feel that there is little evidence for a widespread movement of people at this time and that the dispersal may have occurred at an earlier stage. In general, this line of study is little followed by archaeologists today, because of the problems of correlating linguistic groupings with ethnic or cultural groupings.