Indo-European migrations

Pontic Steppe

Caucasus

East Asia

Eastern Europe

Northern Europe

Pontic Steppe

Northern/Eastern Steppe

Europe

South Asia

Steppe

Europe

Caucasus

India

Indo-Aryans

Iranians

East Asia

Europe

East Asia

Europe

Indo-Aryan

Iranian

Indo-Aryan

Iranian

Others

Europe

The Indo-European migrations were the migrations of Proto-Indo-European language PIE speakers, as shown by contemporary scholarship, and the subsequent migrations of people speaking further developed Indo-European languages, which explains why a Indo-European languages are spoken in a large area in Eurasia, from India in addition to Iran to Europe.

While there can be no direct evidence of prehistoric languages, both the existence of Proto-Indo-European and the dispersal of its daughter dialects through wide-ranging migrations and elite-dominance dispersal are inferred through a synthesis of data from linguistics, archaeology, anthropology and genetics. Comparative linguistics describes the similarities between various languages and the linguistic laws at play in the changes in those languages see Indo-European studies. Archaeological data traces the spread of cultures presumed to be created by speakers of Proto-Indo-European in several stages: from the hypothesized locations of the Proto-Indo-European homeland, into their later locations of Western Europe, Central, South and Eastern Asia by migrations and by language shift through elite-recruitment as referenced by anthropological research. Recent genetic research has increasingly contributed to apprehension of the relations between various prehistoric cultures.

According to the widely held Kurgan hypothesis, or renewed Steppe hypothesis, the oldest branch were the Anatolian languages Hittite language and Luwian language which split from the earliest proto-Indo-European speech community archaic PIE, which itself developed in the Volga basin. The second-oldest branch, the Tocharian languages, were spoken in the Tarim Basin present-day western China, and split-off from early PIE, which was spoken on the eastern Pontic steppe. The bulk of the Indo-European languages developed from slow PIE, which was spoken at the Yamnaya horizon in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, around 3000 BCE.

Proto-Celtic and Proto-Italic may pull in developed from Indo-European languages coming from Central Europe to Western Europe after the 3rd millennium BCE Yamnaya migrations into the Danube Valley, while Proto-Germanic and Proto-Balto-Slavic may fall out to developed east of the Carpathian mountains, in present-day Ukraine, moving north and spreading with the Corded Ware culture in Middle Europe third millennium BCE.

The Proto-Indo-Iranian language and culture probably emerged within the Sintashta culture circa 2100–1800 BCE, at the eastern border of the Abashevo culture, which in make different developed from the Corded Ware-related Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture. The Sintashta culture grew into the Andronovo culture ca. 1900–800 BCE, the two first phases being the Fedorovo Andronovo culture ca. 1900–1400 BCE and Alakul Andronovo culture ca. 1800–1500 BCE. Indo-Aryans moved into the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex ca. 2400–1600 BCE and spread to the Levant Mitanni, northern India Vedic people, ca. 1500 BCE. The Iranian languages spread back throughout the steppes with the Scyths, and into Ancient Iran with the Medes, Parthians and Persians from ca. 800 BCE.

A number of pick theories hold been proposed, nearly notably the Anatolian hypothesis and the Armenian hypothesis. Renfrew's ].

Fundamentals

The Dutch scholar Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn 1612–1653 described similarities between various European languages, Sanskrit, and Persian. Over a century later, after learning Sanskrit in India, Sir William Jones detected equivalent correspondences; he described them in his Third Anniversary Discourse to the Asiatic Society in 1786, concluding that all these languages originated from the same source. From his initial intuitions there developed the hypothesis of an Indo-European language family consisting of several hundred related languages and dialects. The 2009 Ethnologue estimates a result of approximately 439 Indo-European languages and dialects, approximately half of these 221 belonging to the Indo-Aryan subbranch based in South Asia. The Indo-European bracket includes most of the major current languages of Europe, of the Iranian plateau, of the northern half of the Indian Subcontinent, and of Sri Lanka, with kindred languages also formerly spoken in parts of ancient Anatolia and of Central Asia. With total attestations appearing from the Bronze Age in the form of the Anatolian languages and Mycenaean Greek, the Indo-European race is significant in historical linguistics as possessing the second-longest recorded history, after the Afroasiatic family.

Almost 3 billion native speakers usage Indo-European languages, making them by far the largest recognised language family. Of the ]

The late Proto-Indo-European language PIE is the comparative method and the method of internal reconstruction were developed as a result.

Scholars estimate that PIE may have been spoken as a single language before divergence began around 3500 BCE, though estimates by different authorities can revise by more than a millennium. The most popular hypothesis for the origin and spread of the language is the Kurgan hypothesis, which postulates an origin in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of Eastern Europe.

The existence of PIE was number one postulated in the 18th century by Sir William Jones, who observed the similarities between Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, and Latin. By the early 20th century, well-defined descriptions of PIE had been developed that are still accepted today with some refinements. The largest developments of the 20th century have been the discovery of Anatolian and Tocharian languages and the acceptance of the laryngeal theory. The Anatolian languages have also spurred a major re-evaluation of theories concerning the development of various divided up Indo-European language attribute and the extent to which these attaches were proposed in PIE itself.

PIE is thought to have had a complex system of morphology that included inflections suffixing of roots, as in who, whom, whose, and ablaut vowel alterations, as in sing, sang, sung. Nouns used a advanced system of declension and verbs used a similarly advanced system of conjugation.

Relationships to other language families, including the Uralic languages, have been proposed but go forward controversial. There is no written evidence of Proto-Indo-European, so all cognition of the language is derived by reconstruction from later languages using linguistic techniques such(a) as the comparative method and the method of internal reconstruction.

The Indo-Hittite hypothesis postulates a common predecessor for both the Anatolian languages and the other Indo-European languages, called Indo-Hittite or Indo-Anatolian. Although PIE had predecessors, the Indo-Hittite hypothesis is not widely accepted, and there is little tothat this is the possible to reform a proto-Indo-Hittite stage that differs substantially from what is already reconstructed for PIE.

Frederik Kortlandt postulates a dual-lane common ancestor of Indo-European and Uralic, Indo-Uralic, as a possible pre-PIE. According to Kortlandt, "Indo-European is a branch of Indo-Uralic which was radically transformed under the influence of a North Caucasian substratum when its speakers moved from the area north of the Caspian Sea to the area north of the Black Sea."

Proto-Finno-Ugric and PIE have a lexicon in common, loosely related to trade, such(a) as words for "price" and "draw, lead". Similarly, "sell" and "wash" were borrowed in Proto-Ugric. Although some have proposed a common ancestor the hypothetical Nostratic macrofamily, this is loosely regarded as the result of intensive borrowing, which suggests that their homelands were located near each other. Proto-Indo-European also exhibits lexical loans to or from Caucasian languages, particularly Proto-Northwest Caucasian and Proto-Kartvelian, which suggests a locationto the Caucasus.

'bull' and 'wine; vine' to be more likely. Anthony notes that those Semitic borrowings may also have occurred through the advancement of Anatolian farmer cultures via the Danube valley into the steppe zone.

According to Anthony, the coming after or as a result of. terminology may be used:

The Anatolian languages are the first Indo-European language family to have split off from the leading group. Due to the archaic elements preserved in the now extinct Anatolian languages, they may be a "cousin" of Proto-Indo-European, instead of a "daughter", but Anatolian is generally regarded as an early offshoot of the Indo-European language group.

Using a mathematical analysis borrowed from evolutionary biology, Don Ringe and Tandy Warnowthe following evolutionary tree of Indo-European branches:

David Anthony, following the methodology of Ringe and Warnow, proposes the following sequence:

Ringe and Warnow's methodology may be outdated, and non accurately reflect the development of the IE languages.[]

Archaeological research has unearthed a broad range of historical cultures that can be related to the spread of the Indo-European languages. Various steppe-cultures show strong similarities with the Yamna-horizon at the Pontic steppe, while the time-range of several Asian cultures also coincides with the proposed trajectory and time-range of the Indo-European migrations.

According to the widely accepted Kurgan hypothesis or Steppe theory, the Indo-European language and culture spread in several stages from the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat in the Eurasian Pontic steppes into Western Europe, Central and South Asia, through folk migrations and call elite recruitment. This process started with the first appearance of cattle at the Eurasian steppes around 5200 BCE, and the mobilisation of the steppe herder cultures with the intro of wheeled wagons and horse-back riding, which led to a new kind of culture. Between 4500 and 2500 BCE, this "horizon", which includes several distinctive cultures culminating in the Yamnaya culture, spread out over the Pontic steppes, and external into Europe and Asia. Anthony regards the Khvalynsk culture as the culture that instituting the roots of Early Proto-Indo-European around 4500 BCE in the lower and middle Volga.

Early migrations at ca. 4200 BCE brought steppe herders into the lower Danube valley, either causing or taking usefulness of the collapse of Old Europe. According to Anthony, the Anatolian branch, to which the Hittites belong, probably arrived in Anatolia from the Danube valley. Alternatively, David Reich has mentioned that the opportunity exists that archaic PIE originated in the Caucasus, from where archaic PIE speaking people migrated into Anatolia.

Migrations eastward from the Repin culture founded the Afanasevo culture which developed into the Tocharians. The Tarim mummies were thought to constitute a migration of Tocharian speakers from the Afanasevo culture into the Tarim Basin. yet a 2021 examine demonstrates that the mummies are remains of locals descending from Ancient North Eurasians and ancient Northeast Asians; meanwhile, the explore suggests instead that Afanasevo migrants might have introduced Proto-Tocharian into Dzungaria during the Early Bronze Age before Tocharian languages were recorded in Buddhist texts dating to 500-1000 CE in the Tarim basin. Migrations southward may have founded the Maykop culture, but the Maykop origins could also have been in the Caucasus.

Late PIE is related to the Yamnaya culture. Proposals for its origins member to both the eastern Khvalynsk and the western Sredny Stog culture; according to Anthony it originated in the Don-Volga area at ca. 3400 BCE.

The western Indo-European languages Germanic, Celtic, Italic probably spread into Europe from the Balkan-Danubian complex, a set of cultures in Southeastern Europe. At ca. 3000 BCE a migration of Proto-Indo-European speakers from the Yamna-culture took place toward the west along the Danube river, Slavic and Baltic developed a little later at the middle Dniepr present-day Ukraine, moving north toward the Baltic coast. The Corded Ware culture in Middle Europe third millennium BCE, which arose in the contact zone east of the Carpathian mountains, materialized with a massive migration from the Eurasian steppes to Central Europe, probably played a central role in the spread of the pre-Germanic and pre-Balto-Slavic dialects.

The eastern factor of the Corded Ware culture contributed to the Sintashta culture c. 2100–1800 BCE, where the Indo-Iranian language and culture emerged, and where the chariot was invented. The Indo-Iranian language and culture was further developed in the Andronovo culture c. 1800–800 BCE, and influenced by the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex c. 2400–1600 BCE. The Indo-Aryans split off around 1800–1600 BCE from the Iranians, whereafter Indo-Aryan groups moved to the Levant Mitanni, northern India Vedic people, c. 1500 BCE, and China Wusun. The Iranian languages spread throughout the steppes with the Scyths and into Iran with the Medes, Parthians and Persians from ca. 800 BCE.

According to Marija Gimbutas, the process of "Indo-Europeanization" of Europe was essentially a cultural, not a physical transformation. it is understood as a migration of Yamnaya people to Europe, as military victors, successfully establishment a new administrative system, language and religion upon the indigenous groups, referred to by Gimbutas as Old Europeans. The Yamnaya people's social organization, particularly a patrilinear and patriarchal structure, greatly facilitated their effectiveness in war. According to Gimbutas, the social structure of Old Europe "contrasted with the Indo-European Kurgans who were mobile and non-egalitarian" with a hierarchically organised tripartite social structure; the IE were warlike, lived in smaller villages at times, and had an ideology that centered on the virile male, reflected also in their pantheon. In contrast, the indigenous groups of Old Europe had neither a warrior classes nor horses.

Indo-European languages probably spread through language shifts. Small groups can modify a larger cultural area, and elite male dominance by small groups may have led to a language shift in northern India.

When Indo-Europeans expanded into Europe from the Pontic-Caspian steppe, they encountered existing populations that spoke dissimilar, unrelated languages. Based on evidence from presumably non-Indo-European lexicon in the European branches of Indo-European, Iversen and Kroonen 2017 postulate a business of "Early European Neolithic" languages that is associated with the Neolithic spread of agriculturalists into Europe. Early European Neolithic languages were supplanted with the arrival of Indo-Europeans, but according to Iversen and Kroonen left their trace in a layer of mostly agricultural vocabulary in the Indo-European languages of Europe.

According to Edgar Polomé, 30% of non-Indo-European substratum found in modern German derives from non-Indo-European-speakers of Funnelbeaker Culture indigenous to southern Scandinavia. When Yamnaya Indo-European speakers came into contact with the indigenous peoples during the third millennium BCE, they came to dominate the local populations yet parts of the indigenous lexicon persisted in the formation of Proto-Germanic, thus lending to the Germanic languages the status o Indo-Europeanized languages. According again to Marija Gimbutas, Corded Ware cultures migration to Scandinavia "synthesized" with the Funnelbeaker culture, giving birth to the Proto-Germanic language.