What evidence is there to support the origin of a Proto Indo-European language?

A key piece of their evidence is that proto-Indo-European had a vocabulary for chariots and wagons that included words for “wheel,” “axle,” “harness-pole” and “to go or convey in a vehicle.” These words have numerous descendants in the Indo-European daughter languages.

What are the two theories called that detail the origin of the Proto Indo-European?

The Proto-Indo-European Homeland Problem. There are two dominant theories of the origins of the Indo-European languages; the Pontic-Caspian-Steppe hypothesis and Anatolian hypothesis.

How did Proto Indo-European evolve?

Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the theorized common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. Over many centuries, these dialects transformed into the known ancient Indo-European languages.

What was the ancient Indo-European language that developed in India called?

Vedic Sanskrit
Sanskrit, which belongs to the Indic sub-branch, is the best known among the early languages of this branch; its oldest variety, Vedic Sanskrit, is preserved in the Vedas, a collection of hymns and other religious texts of ancient India.

What evidence and theories attempt to explain the diffusion of Indo-European languages?

The Kurgan hypothesis (also known as the Kurgan theory or Kurgan model) or Steppe theory is the most widely accepted proposal to identify the Proto-Indo-European homeland from which the Indo-European languages spread out throughout Europe and parts of Asia.

Where do scholars think the original homeland of the Indo Europeans existed?

The most widely accepted proposal about the location of the Proto-Indo-European homeland is the steppe hypothesis, which puts the archaic, early and late PIE homeland in the Pontic–Caspian steppe around 4000 BC. The leading competitor is the Anatolian hypothesis, which puts it in Anatolia around 8000 BC.

What are the three forms of expansion diffusion?

Stimulus, contagious, and hierarchical diffusion are all kinds of expansion diffusion. Expansion diffusion is when innovations spread to new places while staying strong in their original locations.

When and where were the earliest origins of the Indo-European language family?

“The languages of Europe and those of Northern India, Iran, and part of Western Asia belong to a group known as the Indo-European Languages. They probably originated from a common language-speaking group about 4000 BC and then split up as various subgroups migrated.

What do you understand by the term Proto-Indo-European?

The Proto-Indo-Europeans are a hypothetical prehistoric population of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the ancestor of the Indo-European languages according to linguistic reconstruction. The Proto-Indo-Europeans likely lived during the late Neolithic, or roughly the 4th millennium BC.

When did the Proto-Indo-European language begin?

PIE is estimated to have been spoken as a single language from 4500 BC to 2500 BC during the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age, though estimates vary by more than a thousand years. According to the prevailing Kurgan hypothesis, the original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans may have been in…

What is the common ancestor of Indo-European languages?

Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the theorized common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists.

What are the characteristics of Proto Indo-European?

Proto-Indo-European was a fusional language, in which inflectional morphemes signalled the grammatical relationships between words. This dependence on inflectional morphemes means that roots in PIE, unlike those in English, were rarely used without affixes.

Is Sanskrit an Indo-European language?

Sanskrit is one of the earliest attested Indo-European language along with Mycenaean Greek and Anatolian (Hittite), also possessing the largest ancient literature in any language of the world. Introduction. Sanskrit along with major European and Iranian languages belongs to a language family known as Indo-European.