Indo-European Languages

• 07 Feb 2025

Source: DTE 

Why in News?  

A Study published in the journal Nature identifies the Caucasus Lower Volga people as the probable originators of Indo-European languages, challenging the earlier Yamnaya theory. 

What are the Key Findings of the Study? 

• Genetic Origin: The Caucasus Lower Volga people, who lived 6,500 years ago on the Eurasian steppe, stretching from the Volga River to the Caucasus Mountains, are identified as the genetic progenitors of the Indo-European language family. 
• Yamnaya People’s Role: The Yamnaya people (5,700–5,300 years ago), descendants of the Caucasus Lower Volga, played a significant role in spreading Proto-Indo-European languages across Europe, the Indian subcontinent, and China. 
  • These ancient populations migrated west, mixed with locals, and formed the distinct Yamnaya genome. 
  • Earlier researches suggested the ancient Yamnaya people of the steppe as the originators of Proto-Indo-European, the precursor to modern Indo-European languages. 
• Economic Transformation: The Yamnaya people’s new economic practices, such as livestock herding and the use of oxen-drawn wagons, enabled their migration and expansion. 
  • The Yamnaya underwent a demographic explosion, expanding from a few thousand people to tens of thousands within a few centuries.  

Indo-European Language Family 

• The Indo-European language family is the world’s largest language family, comprising over 400 languages. These languages are divided into several sub-families.

Indo-European Language Sub-family	Languages	Region
Celtic	Breton, Cornish, Manx, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh	Western Europe, British Isles
Germanic	English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian	Northern and Western Europe
Romance	Latin (classical), French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian	Southern and Western Europe
Hellenic	Greek (Modern and Ancient)	Greece, Cyprus
Albanian	Albanian	Albania, Kosovo, parts of Macedonia, Montenegro
Armenian	Armenian	Armenia
Balto-Slavic	Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Belarusian	Eastern Europe, Baltic region
Indo-Iranian	Persian (Farsi), Kurdish, Pashto, Baloch, Sanskrit, Punjabi, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Dogri, Gujarati, Urdu, Hindi, Marathi, Maithili, Nepali, Bangla, Assamese, Odia, Sinhala, Dhivehi	Indian subcontinent, Iran, Central Asia

Note: In South Asia, languages belong to four major families: Indo-European (primarily Indo-Aryan), Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, and Sino-Tibetan. 

• Indo-Aryan languages: The largest group, with 574 languages spoken by 73.30% of the population. 
• Dravidian languages: 153 languages, spoken by 24.47% of the population. 
• Sino-Tibetan languages: 226 languages, with less than 1% of the population speaking them, including Khampti from the Siamese-Chinese subfamily. 
• Austro-Asiatic languages: 65 languages with 6.19 million speakers. 

UPSC Civil Services Examination, Previous Year Questions (PYQs) 

Q. With reference to India, the terms ‘HaIbi, Ho and Kui’ pertain to (2021)

(a) dance forms of Northwest India 
(b) musical instruments 
(c) pre-historic cave paintings 
(d) tribal languages 

Ans: (d) 

Q. Consider the following languages: (2014)

1. Gujarati  
2. Kannada 
3. Telugu 

Which of the above has/have been declared as ‘Classical Language/Languages’ by the Government?  

(a) 1 and 2 only   

(b) 3 only  

(c) 2 and 3 only   

(d) 1, 2 and 3  

Ans: (c)