Proto-Indo-European
Language Family

The theories surrounding the Indo-European language family and their origins in an unrecorded language called Proto-Indo-European are numerous and the subject is vast, too vast to be properly discussed here.

Nevertheless, I thought it would be useful to include at least one simple chart showing one proposed method of descent from Proto-Indo-European.

This family tree model was proposed by Augustus Schleicher in 1862 to represent a geneological model of family relationships between the Indo-European languages. Many scholars believe this chart showing the descent from Proto-Indo-European to other language groups to now be over simplistic. In particular, it doesn't show continuing interaction and resemblances between languages are considered entirely in terms of parenthood. Resemblances between languages arose from their common origin.

Dewdrop story
Italic Language family tree
Index page