Indo-European Languages

Just like living things, families come in languages and groups. You could say that there are different breeds and species of languages. An example of one of these families is the large family of Indo-European languages. All the languages in this group are connected in some way. 

There are approximately 439 Indo-European languages.  People all across the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe and South Asia communicate in these tongues. 

To put this in context here is a list of just some Indo-European languages. 

English
French
Spanish
Italian
Hindi
German 
Urdu
Dutch 
Ukrainian

Indo-European languages are split into different groups with Germanic, Baltic, Celtic, Slavic,  Indo-Iranian and Romance languages all included.

The origin of Indo-European languages has recently been traced back to about 15,000 years ago which is when the end last ice age began to emerge. Hunter gatherers spread out from southern Europe to populate the North, East and West. Yet before this theory was put forward, Indo-European languages had been traced back to about 8,000 or 9,000 years ago. Around this time a reconstructed form of Indo-European known as Proto-European became evident as it began to be spoken.

This proto-language most likely originated around the Black Sea and was spoken in Turkey and also Iraq which was then referred to as Mesopotamia. However Armenia is also a location which is in the running for the origin and there is much dispute over the real birth place of the language. 

The original Indo-Europeans migrated outwards from the Middle East some time many years ago. As they moved apart and spread , the language began to evolve slightly. The sounds of words altered and so did the vocabulary as tribes drifted apart. This is how one language split to become the abundance of dialects that are spoken today.

So, if all of these languages are in one big family then how exactly are they related to one another? Well, research carried out by Professor Mark Pagel suggests that there are 23 common words in almost all 439 languages. For example, the words "we", "I" and "mother" are all similar to each other. Some verbs also resemble their linguistic cousins. 

Take a look at the word "I" for example. It looks similar in each of these languages. 

English	German	Italian	Spanish
I	Ich	Oi	Yo

We need to imagine that once, long ago, a large amount of people on earth all spoke one common language that no longer exists in the same form as it once did. Now, just like mankind, everything has evolved so much that this is hard to envision. I hope that this information has enhanced your knowledge and that perhaps a clearer picture has been painted.

Sources

http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320hist&civ/slides/07ie/IElanguagesmap.jpg
http://www.slmc.uottawa.ca/content_images/2xx007e.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages
http://encyclopedia.kids.net.au/page/in/Indo-European_languages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/general/IE.html
http://www.dw.de/indo-european-languages-came-from-a-common-root-about-15000-years-ago/a-16796900