Language Families

 We find a multitude of of languages in the world today. Though they are different from one another, it can be grouped into families of related languages. A large group of such related languages is called a language family. The process of a divergent development of a language gives rise to further languages, with common features of the parent language. there are several language families; Semitic- Hamitic, Ural- Altaic, Sino-Tibetan, Dravidian, Indo-European etc. Indo-European is the ancestor of English and includes most of the European languages.



Indo- European Family of Languages

Indo-European is the name given to an original homogenous language from which nearly all languages of Europe, Persia and a large part of India are believed to have descended. this language was spoken about 3000-3500 BC by the nomadic tribes of  Central Asia, who wandered in the lands around the Black Sea. These tribes, split up up and immigrated in different directions across the continent of Euro Asia in search of new pastures and farmable land. In course of time, the parent languages were mixed with many non Indo European tongues. Several different dialects, of the parent language arose, later developing into independent languages. Each of them subdivided again and became modified by later contacts with other languages.

The Indo European languages had split by 2000 BC into eight distinct language groups. These eight branches of IE family were sub divided into several smaller branches dividing them into East and West.

Centum and Satem groups

The Eight branches of the IE family is divided into two groups; the Centum languages (the Western group) and Satem languages (the Eastern group).

Satem: Indo- Iranian, Albanian, Armenian and Balto Slavic (Eastern group)

Centum: Hellenic, Italic, Celtic and Germanic (Western group)

  1. Indo Iranian: this branch has two sub groups, Indian and Iranian to which belongs Sanskrit and other North Indian Languages and Persian.
  2. Albanian: This is the language of ancient Illyria. 
  3. Armenian: It is preserved as the literary language, Old Armenian from the 5th C A.D.
  4. Balto Slavonic: This consists of two groups :(a) the Baltic group comprising Old Prussian, Lithuanian and Lettic, (b)the Slavonic group comprising Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Czech and Polish.
  5. Hellenic or Greek: There were several Greek dialects, the most important being Attic, Ionic, Doric and Aeolic. The literary language, according to all Greeks sprang from the Attic- Ionic in the 5th C B.C.
  6. Italic: One of the sub divisions of this branch is Latin, the literary language of Ancient Rome and is known from around 300 B.C. A popular language, the vulgar Latin, as spoken in the Provinces developed into the modern Romance languages. The Romance languages are French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Rumanian.
  7. Celtic: The Celtic was originally spoken in Portugal, Spain. France and England, but it was later displaced by the later Romance languages and English. This branch is represented by the Ancient Gaulish or Gallic, the modern Welsh, The Cornish, The Irish, the Gaelic spoke in the Highlands of Scotland, and the Manx spoken in the Isle of Man.
  8. Primitive Germanic or Teutonic: This consists of three divisions, the east Germanic represented by Gothic, the North Germanic represented by the Scandinavian group pf languages namely; Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic and the West Germanic represented by English, German and Dutch.










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