Proto-Indo-European was the first proto-language identified by linguists. This based on similarities between Ancient Greek, Latin and Sanskrit. Unfortunately, it took long before one could say something about where it had been spoken. Meanwhile, the question bore the stamp of misdirected nationalism. People from different countries claim it was in their particular country. It only seen to be Indians claiming that nowadays.
I think there is a strong correlation between language and archaeological culture. Such a culture’s extent roughly corresponds to a language’s. Moreover there are systematic similarities between archaeological cultures. Such can be used to track where a culture comes from. In this way the origins of languages can fairly be tracked geographically before historical times. At least one can correlate proto-languages with time and place of a culture. Which is what I am trying to do.
I think Proto-Indo-European was spoken by the Repin culture. It existed between 5,900 and 5,300 years ago. Finds have been found in Ukraine and southern European Russia. This is a matter of herders which got their livestock from the Caucasus Mountains. Some from this culture emigrated southwards early on. This group gave rise to the Anatolian languages. Such languages are documented in present-day Turkey. Our knowledge of those languages is comparably fragmentary. The last of these languages went extinct in the 2nd century AD. The speakers have been culturally absorbed by later immigrated peoples.
All present-day Indo-European languages descend from the Yamna culture’s. Finds from this have been found in westernmost Kazakhstan, Moldova, Romania, southern European Russia and Ukraine. There it existed between 5,300 and 4,600 years ago. It was still a matter of a herding culture. Through contact with farmer peoples living west of this it acquired metalwork. Later it also acquired wheels though this contact. People must have metal tools to be able to make wheels.
During the Chalcolithic Europe suffered one or several plague epidemics. Moreover the British Islands at the same time suffered ecological collapse. The moorlands common there was created by this collapse. Anyway the population shrinking made it possible for early Indo-Europeans to spread across Europe. Naturally conflicts still arose with the survivors’ descendants. We have found the victims of massacres committed by both sides. Not until well into the Bronze Age did Indo-Europeans dominate culturally. Then earlier population had more or less mixed with it. Also other Indo-European languages have spread in similar ways.
The first large wave became the Corded Ware culture. Finds from it exist in large parts of northern Europe. I think they were the common ancestors of the Baltic, Germanic and Slavic-speakers. In the Bronze Age there was a clear difference between Pre-Proto-Germanic and Proto-Balto-Slavic. I think this was due to the former being partially creolised. The vocabulary of Pre-Proto-Germanic was one third pre-Indo-European. Germanic languages have fewer inflictions than other Indo-European languages. The one of the Germanic languages having the most inflictions is German. Modern Standard German is based on dialects of southern Germany. This is outside the area where Proto-Germanic was spoken in the Iron Age. A different substrate may explain that.
A second wave gave rise to the more westerly Bell Beaker Culture. Large parts of western Europe have finds from this culture. There was some overlapping with the Corded Ware culture. I still think their dominating languages developed into two different ones. The Bell Beaker culture then spoke Proto-Italo-Celtic. Towards the end of the Bronze Age Proto-Italic and Proto-Celtic divided. The later gave rise to Gaulish (central Europe), Celto-Iberian (Iberian Peninsula) and Island Celtic (British Islands). Out of these only Island Celtic survived. It has in turn given rise to today’s Celtic languages.
During the Bronze Age Indo-Europeans spread from Romania over the Balkans. The languages then arising as time went on gave rise to Albanian and Greek. The origin of Armenian is more uncertain. However, we know the Ancient Phrygians were Indo-European-speaking. These may consists a link over Turkey to Armenia. For sure Armenian was not written until the 5th century AD. By then it was not particularly similar to any other Indo-European language.
At the same time as the languages spread over the Balkans Proto-Balto-Slavic spread towards the southeast. Its speaker mixed with the Timber-grave culture still living on the steppes. The Proto-Indo-Iranians arose from the meeting of these two cultures. Since the chariot had been invented it could spread much faster. When it spread further the Andronovo culture arose in western Central Asia. From there people continued southward to the Iranian Plateau. Before their language divided in several some emigrated to South Asia. There their language gave rise to the Indo-Aryan languages. Meanwhile the rest divided in two different cultures. One gave rise to the people now known as Nuristani. They live around the border between eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The other consist the origin of Iranian peoples.
Before Antiquity Proto-Iranian divided into Avestan, Scythian and Proto-Persian. Avestan gave rise to Afghan, and similar languages to the east. The Scythians’ cultural descendants consist of the Ossetian. The rest of the Iranian languages descend from Proto-Persian. At about the same time as these three there was the common origin of the Nuristani languages. During the same time period Vedic had a small distribution. It was only spoken in Punjab (both Indian and Pakistani) and on the Ganges plain. During Antiquity Indo-Aryan languages spread out towards the east, south and southwest. To the east they reached parts on Assam. Their spread towards the south reached present-day India’s west coast. From there people continued in boats to the Laccadives, the Maldives and Ceylon.
At the beginning of Antiquity Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic divided. At the same time several Italic languages developed. Out of these only Latin survived in the long run. I think it was because the conquests of the Romans made it culturally dominating. The Romans ruled over loads of peoples speaking many different languages. When people with different mother tongues needed to talk with each other Latin and Ancient Greek were used. The later was mostly used where it had already been established earlier. Much of the Eastern Mediterranean’s and the Black Sea’s coasts were included.
I think the Roman Empire fell victim to a combination of factors. These included climate change, deforestation and soil erosion. At the end of the 4th century the Roman Empire divided in two. The Western Roman Empire was a failed state existing for less than a century. Then the country was divided between several conquerors. The area has since then remained politically splintered. The result is that Latin has divided into several languages. What linguistically unaware Americans can imagine is “Latin” is the largest language of Spanish. The Eastern Roman Empire in contrast survived and came to be called the Byzantine Empire. I view it as the Roman Empire’s successor.
In the 6th century the world suffered a volcanic winter. Less than a decade later a plague epidemic happened. It hit Europe, North Africa and West Asia. Additional smaller epidemics happened into the 8th century. Latin-speakers surviving in the Balkans gave rise to the Romanians. These should not be confused with Gypsies, which immigrated later and speak an Indo-Aryan language.
Population shrinking during this period meant considerable social changes. By the 13th century the Byzantine Empire had largely lost its middle class. Without this it was no longer possible to requite enough soldiers. Over the course of 200 years it was conquered by the Turks. They controlled large parts of the Balkans all the way into the 19th century. Most of the area were Greek has historically been spoken has remained politically united. At least during most of the time. Except for a small minority language this language has not divided into several. That Turkey has few Greeks today is due to emigration after WWI.
Climate change motivated several waves of moving to new areas. Celts from the British Islands settled in northwestern France. It is because of this the area is called Brittany. Germanic peoples increased their extent towards the south and west. The extent of Dutch and German are consequences of this. Moreover Germanic peoples took control over most of England. This led to the development of Old English. At the same time Slavic-speaking peoples spread over the Balkans Peninsula. The result is a dialect continuum from Bulgaria to Slovenia. Fortunately, most dialects have defined themselves as languages during the course of the 19th century.
Over the Middle Ages Scandinavians increased their extent too. Later climate change enabled agriculture to spread northward. By sailboat they settled on islands in the North Atlantic. The most distant one surviving on the long run was Iceland. Before the journeys of Cristoforo Colombo this was as far west as Indo-European language extended. Their spread over the Americas has taken place after that. Same applies to Oceania and western South Africa. The entire of this extent is the result of recent colonialism.
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