Indo-European Language Room: The Indo-European Language Families

Reading this Table. This table shows how the Proto-Indo-European language, which apparently existed about 5000 BCE, broke up into the modern languages of India and Europe that we know today. The first column of family stocks were originally the languages that developed directly from Proto-Indo-European. These languages became families by breaking up into dialects that became languages which themselves then produced dialects and languages, and so on and so forth.

Bulleted languages (•Hittite) are now dead. Ancient languages are listed under the heading "Family" and "Subfamilty" because they died out when other families and subfamilies were forming. Those that became extinct recently are listed as "Languages". Family and Subfamily names without bullets are just speculative groupings that do not correspond to languages whose existence is documented. Indeed, keep in mind that much of this table is speculative when it comes to ancient languages for which no hard evidence exists. For the Indo-European Root Table, click here.

Stock Family Subfamily Languages Anatolian •Carian, •Hittite, •Luwian, •Lycian, •Lydian, •Palaic Balto-Slavic Baltic Latvian (Lettish), Lithuanian, •Old Prussian Slavic East Slavic Belarussian, Russian, Ukrainian South Slavic Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian West Slavic Czech-Slovak, Kashubian, Sorbian, •Polabian, Polish Celtic Brythonic Breton, •Cornish, Welsh Continental •Celtiberian, •Gaulish Goidelic Irish Gaelic, •Manx, Scots Gaelic Germanic East Germanic •Burgundian (Italy), •Gothic, •Vandal North Germanic Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish West Germanic High German German, Yiddish Low German Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Flemish, Frisian, German, Low German Hellenic •Aeolic, •Arcadian, •Attic, •Doric, •Ionic, •Koiné Modern Greek Indo-Iranian Indic Dardic Kafiri, Kashmiri, Khowar, Kohistani, Romany (Gypsy), Shina Northwest Indic Punjabi, Sindhi •Sanskrit: •Pali, •Prakrit, •Vedic Central Indic Hindi, Hindustani, Urdu East Indic Assamese, Bengali, Bihari, Oriya Pahari Central Pahari, Eastern Pahari (Nepalese), Western Pahari South Indic Marathi, Sinhalese (Sri Lanka) West Indic Bhili, Gujarati, Rajasthani Iranian East Iranian, •Avestan Baluchi, •Khotanese, •Khwarazmian, Ossetic, Pushtu, •Sogdian, Yaghnobi West Iranian Kurdish, Pahlavi, •Parthian, Modern Persian (Farsi), Tajiki Italic Osco-Umbrian •Faliscan, •Oscan, •Umbrian •Latin Eastern Romance Italian, Romanian, Sardinian Western Romance Catalan, French, Ladino, Portuguese, Provençal, Spanish Illyrian •Illyrian, •Thracian, Grabar (Old Albanian) Albanian Phrygian •Phrygian, •Old Armenian Armenian Tokharian (W China) •Tokharian A, •Tokharian B For the Indo-European Root Table, click here.