Discover the 10 Branches of the Indo-European Language Family

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What do English, Farsi, Greek, and Albanian have in common? They’re all in the Indo-European language family, a group of languages that originated on and around the European continent. 

But not all European languages are Indo-European languages—and not all Indo-European languages are European. Learn more about the Indo-European language tree and its branches, plus the surprising connections between the languages in each branch. 

What is an Indo-European language?

The Indo-European language family is a large group of languages spoken in Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, and Western Asia. They came from a Proto-Indo-European parent language, spoken by a common ancestor (the Proto-Indo-Europeans).

Some Indo-European languages originated over 3,000 years ago, while others came about more recently. Today, nearly half of the world’s population (about 3 billion people) speak one of the several hundred Indo-European languages.

Indo-European language tree

Linguists place Indo-European languages into 10 branches of the Indo-European language tree. While some of the languages in these branches are extinct, many of them are living languages—including some of the most spoken languages in the world.

The below chart details each language family in the tree, along with some of the living and extinct languages in every branch.

Major Indo-European languages

A few branches of the Indo-European language tree, like the Anatolian languages and the Tocharian languages, are no longer spoken today. But the eight remaining Indo-European language branches are alive and well, and spoken all over the world.

Anatolian languages

Sometimes known as the Indo-Hittite language branch, the Anatolian languages were spoken in parts of present-day Turkey and Syria. The most common Anatolian language was Hittite, which originated around 1800 B.C.E. and was spoken around the first and second century B.C.E.

Indo-Iranian languages

The Indo-Iranian language branch splits into two subbranches: the Indo-Aryan languages and the Iranian languages. Indo-Aryan languages are spoken in present-day India and Pakistan. Dating back to Sanskrit scriptures in 1000 B.C.E., these languages include modern Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, and Punjabi.

The Iranian subbranch of languages includes modern Farsi, Kurdish, and Pashto, as well as the ancient language Avestan. Today, these languages are spoken in parts of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, and Hungary.

Greek languages

The Greek branch of the Indo-European language family is somewhat unique, in that modern-day Greek is the only living language and its ancestors, including Mycenaean Greek and Attic Greek, are the only extinct languages. The earliest Greek writing comes from the Linear B tablets from around 1400 B.C.E, and Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” which were written a few centuries later. 

Greek became the lingua franca (main connecting language) of the Mediterranean and Middle East regions in the Hellenistic period, around 300 to 23 B.C.E. Today, Greek is the official language of Greek and Cypress, and is spoken by over 12 million people worldwide.

Italic languages

If you’re familiar with the Romance languages, you know all about the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family. These languages stem from Latin, which dates back to the sixth century B.C.E., and were spoken in regions occupied by the Roman Empire, including modern-day Italy, Spain, France, and Germany.

Although Latin itself is a “dead” language, it lives on through its daughter languages, including Italian, Spanish, French, Romanian, and Portuguese. These languages are spoken by over 1 billion people in Europe and areas of the world previously colonized by European countries, such as Central America, South America, and many countries in Africa.

Celtic languages

Celtic languages were widely spoken across Europe in the last centuries before the Common Era, but are now mainly spoken in the seven Celtic nations (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Man). Because these island nations were largely isolated from the rest of Europe, many Celtic languages survived beyond the influences of Latin, German, English, and French.

Irish is still the official language in Ireland, though English is commonly spoken throughout the country. Two Celtic languages, Cornish and Manx, have been revived as second languages after becoming extinct in the 18th century, but are not spoken as native languages.

Germanic languages

Wondering where English falls in the Indo-European language family? English is a Germanic language, placing it in the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language tree. Specifically, it’s in the West Germanic subbranch, which joins the North Germanic subbranch (Norse languages) and the East Germanic subbranch, which is no longer spoken today.

Along with English, other Germanic languages include German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and Frisian (the closest language to English). Today, over 1.5 billion people speak English worldwide, with another quarter of a billion people speaking another Germanic language.

Armenian languages

Armenian is the only language in the Armenian language branch. Though past scholars have placed Armenian into the nearby Iranian subbranch of the Indo-European language family, modern linguists believe it’s distinctive enough to have its own branch.

Around 5 million people still speak Armenian in modern-day Armenia, Russia, eastern Turkey, and among diaspora (people not living in their native homeland) around the world. Listed as a Category III language in the Foreign Service Institute’s language difficulty rankings, Armenian takes around 44 weeks (or 1,100 hours) of practice for speakers to become proficient.

Tocharian languages

Spoken mainly in present-day western China, the Tocharian languages are all considered extinct. When they did exist during the first centuries of the Common Era, they were divided into East Tocharian (also known as Tocharian A, or Turfanian) and West Tocharian (known as Tocharian B, or Kuchean). Of all the Indo-European languages, Tocharian was spoken in the easternmost regions.

Balto-Slavic languages

The Balto languages and Slavic languages are closely related enough to be in one branch of the Indo-European language tree, but different enough to be in their own subbranches. These languages are considered younger than more ancient languages, as the earliest Slavic texts date back to 800 C.E. and the earliest Baltic texts can be traced to 1300 B.C.

Around 4 million people speak Latvian and Lithuanian, the only two Baltic languages that have survived to the modern era. Over 315 million people living in eastern Europe speak Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish, Czech, and Ukrainian.

Albanian languages

Albanian is one of the more recently documented Indo-European languages. Its earliest texts come from the 15th century C.E., and linguists believe the Albanian language derived from either Illyrian or Thracian dialects spoken in the region around the same time. 

As the official language of modern-day Albania, Albanian has two major dialects: Tosk (spoken in Southern Albania) and Gheg (spoken in Northern Albanian). Over 5 million people speak some form of Albanian in Albania and its surrounding areas.

It’s all in the (language) family

Knowing a language’s ancestry is key to becoming proficient in that language. While it may not seem like Spanish and Armenian have much in common, knowing they’re both Indo-European languages can help you understand more about them, as well as any other language in the family.

If you’re ready to start your language learning journey, Rosetta Stone offers immersive lessons in 15 of the languages in the Indo-European language family. And no matter which language you’re studying with Rosetta Stone, you can get your accent just right with the TruAccent speech recognition engine—the perfect way to sound like a local during your travels!