The Indo-European languages in the world today ------->
(pink and orange on the chart)

Once historians had put together enough evidence to postulate that there had been an initial Indo-European mother tongue, the speakers had to be identified and reconstructed as well. That was not too easy because archeologists who explore pre-historical times can work only on objects and if there is no written record from or about a community it is difficult to get a clear picture of their character, mentality, way of thinking and behaviour.

From the lost language of the Indo-Europeans
to the emergence European languages


In the mist of times

The origins of European languages and Sanskrit
There is lexical and grammatical evidence that Latin, Greek, Celtic, Germanic, Slavonic, Sanskrit and Indo-Iranian all contain major elements from one initial mother tongue, to which historians have given the name of Indo-European because it is the common root of both European languages and Indo-Iranian languages, of which Sanskrit is the most prominent. Indo-European is not a dead language, like Greek, Latin, or Sanskrit, as there is no written record of it. It is a hypothetical proto-language which scientists have sort of reconstructed on the basis of the numerous similarities detected between Sanskrit, Germanic, Celtic, Latin, Greek and Slavonic. It contained the fundamental elements (grammatical, lexical and syntactical) of all these languages. Only three European languages are not derived from the Indo-European root, namely : Finnish, Hungarian, which were brought in by invaders coming from the far-eastern parts of the Russian steppes, and Basque, the origins of which remain mysterious.

The most popular thesis held by scientists and based on archeological and linguistic evidence, is that the community of people whose language contained the seeds of European languages and Sanskrit, were white men and came from a spot located in the eastern parts of the Russian steppes: they are identified as the Indo-Europeans. Their migrations and dispersal began in around - 5000 B.C. ; the language families of Europe and Sanskrit developed between - 5000 and - 3000 B.C.

Who were the Indo-Europeans ?

The Old Stone Age (paleolithic)
What about earlier than the Indo-Europeans ? There was somebody around in Europe earlier than the time when the Indo-Europeans decided to go and have a look elsewhere, wasn't there ? What the blazes did they speak ? There was the Old Stone Age, that lasted for a period stretching from - 400'000 BC to - 50'000 B.C. but er....ehm.....

Brrrr.... too cold to have a chat


The New Stone Age (neolithic)
The scientists estimate that this period began approx. in - 30'000 B.C. because that is the time at which the Cro-Magnon people appeared on the scene of prehistory . Between that date and the arrival of the Kurgan / Battle-Axe folk , the Western Europeans had attained varying degrees of culture or even of civilization. Agriculture was known all over Europe. Moreover, around the Mediterranean the Minoans on Crete, the Myceneans in Greece, the Etruscans to the north west of Italy had already attained a very high level of civilization when the Kurgans invaded western Europe.

Ah . . . Cro-Magnonish !

The Indo-European expansion

Europe at the time of the Indo-European expansion