Branches of Indo-European

Question 1

Indic

Answer 1

“Indo-Aryan”: Sanskrit (Vedic, transmitted orally from ca. 1200-1000 BCE.
• Oldest written Sanskrit texts from second century CE.
• Oldest written Indic texts (Prakrit) from the third century BCE).

Question 2

Iranian

Answer 2

1. Avestan (language of Zarathustra’s teachings, orally transmitted from ca. 1000 BCE; oldest written texts from the early centuries CE).
   
   2. Old Persian (inscriptions of the great Persian kings, 6th-4th century BCE).
   3. Middle Iranian: Middle Persian (Pahlavi), Sogdian, Khotanese Saka etc.
   4. Modern Iranian: Persian, Kurdish, Pashto, Ossetic etc.

Question 3

Anatolian

Answer 3

1. Hittite (17th-13th c. BCE).
   
   2. Palaic (14th-13th c. BCE).
   3. Luwian (14th-13th c. BCE).
   4. Hieroglyphic Luwian from 15th c. BCE).
   5. Lycian (5th-4th c. BCE).
   6. Lydian (7th-4th c. BCE).

Question 4

Tocharian (in China)

Answer 4

1. Tocharian A (8th-9th c. CE).
   
   2. Tocharian B (6th-9th c. CE).

Question 5

Armenian

Answer 5

Attested from the 5th century CE.

Question 6

Greek

Answer 6

Mycenaean in the 14th century BCE, inscriptions and literature from the 8th century BCE (Homer).

Question 7

Albanian

Answer 7

Attested from the 15th century CE.

Question 8

Italic

Answer 8

1. Latin (from 7th c. BCE).
   
   2. Faliscan (3rd-2nd c. BCE).
   3. Oscan (from 6th c. BCE).
   4. Umbrian (from 7th c. BCE).
   5. Perhaps Venetic (6th-1st c. BCE).

Question 9

Celtic

Answer 9

1. Continental Celtic
   • Gaulish (inscriptions from ca. 200 BCE to 200 CE).
   • Lepontic (North Italy; inscriptions from 5th-1st c. BCE).
   • Celtiberian (Spain; inscriptions from 2nd-1st century BCE).
2. Insular Celtic
   • Irish: Old Irish inscriptions from ca. 400, literature from 7th c. CE).
   • Brittonic: Welsh (from 8th c.), Breton (from 8th c.), Cornish (9th-18th c.).

Question 10

Germanic

Answer 10

Runic inscriptions from ca. 150 CE.

1. East Germanic
   • Gothic (Bible translation of Wulfila, 4th century CE).
2. North Germanic
   • Old Norse (13th c. CE)
   • Old Icelandic (13th c. CE)
3. West-Germanic
   • Old English (after ca. 700 CE)
   • Old High German (8th c. CE)
   • Old Saxon (from 9th c. CE)

North Germanic can be split into East and West Scandi:
• East: Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian
• West: Swedish, Danish

Question 11

Baltic

Answer 11

1. Old Prussian (14th-17th c. CE)
2. Lithuanian (from 16th c. CE)
3. Latvian (from 16th c. CE)

Question 12

Slavic

Answer 12

Old Church Slavonic from 10th c. CE.

1. East Slavic
   • Russian
   • Ukrainian
   • Belarusian
2. West Slavic
   • Czech
   • Slovak
   • Polish
   • Upper Sorbian
   • Lower Sorbian
3. South Slavic
   • Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian/Montenegrin/Slovenian/Macedonian/ Bulgarian

Question 13

Other languages

Answer 13

1. Phrygian
   • Old Phrygian (inscriptions from 8th-4th c. BCE)
   • New Phrygian (inscriptions from the 2nd-3rd c. CE)
2. Messapian
   In Apulia, in southern eastern Italy; ca. 300 inscriptions from the 5th c. BCE.
3. Illyrian, Thracian, Ancient Macedonian (South Slavic Macedonian), Lusitania