Tracing the Origins of Indo-European Languages – Graphic – NYTimes.com

Tracing the Origins of Indo-European Languages

A new study suggests that the sprawling Indo-European family of languages originated in Anatolia, or modern-day Turkey. Related Article »

Anatolian

Tocharian

Armenian

Greek

Albanian

Balto-

Slavic

Italic

Germanic

Insular
Celtic

RUSSIA

FRANCE

Black Sea

UKRAINE

CHINA

ANATOLIA

EGYPT

INDIA

IRAN

Indo-Iranian

Researchers studied the evolution of words across 103 modern and extinct languages from the Indo-European language family, and created a tree showing the relationships among the different languages, at right.

 

The map above shows where each major branch probably arose, before spreading and diversifying to other regions.

 

A competing hypothesis places the point of origin in the steppes of modern-day Ukraine and Russia, north of the Black Sea.

Slovenian

Armenian

Tadzik

Lithuanian

Friulian

Lusatian

Waziri

Old Church Slavonic

Scots Gaelic

Persian

Macedonian

Breton

Italian

Afghan

Belarusian

Icelandic

Provençal

Bihari

Oscan

Greek

Swedish

Danish

Luxembourgish

Old Irish

Ossetic

Kashmiri

Polish

Old English

Welsh

Latin

Flemish

Riksmal

Old Norse

Hittite

Classical Armenian

Slovak

Romansh

Urdu

Marwari

Romanian

Avestan

Ukrainian

Bengali

Czech

Spanish

German

Dutch

Kurdish

Vlach

Nepali

Gujarati

Ancient Greek

Albanian

Lahnda

Russian

Hindi

French

Irish

Cornish

Umbrian

Bulgarian

Luvian

Lycian

Oriya

Catalan

Vedic Sanskrit

Old Prussian

Marathi

Old High German

Romani

Faroese

Sindhi

Latvian

Serbo-Croatian

Ladin

Assamese

Gothic

Indo-

Iranian

Insular
Celtic

Italic

Germanic

Balto-Slavic

Albanian

Greek

Armenian

Anatolian

Tocharian

Tocharian

Singhalese

Wakhi

Frisian

Old Persian

Sardinian

Portuguese

Baluchi

ENGLISH

Walloon

8,000

years ago

7,000

6,000

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

TODAY

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Source: Science