The language of the ancient Aryans. Mitanni Aryan language

In ancient times there was Aryan language, which was spoken by the ancestors of the Slavic, Germanic and Romance peoples. Ancient Greek branched off from it quite early, which, nevertheless, retained a certain relationship with it. Of course, it is impossible to describe the entire language within the framework of this article, but from the material presented below, you can get an idea about it and draw your own politically harmful conclusions.

Usually such words are transcribed in Latin, adding all sorts of diacritical marks, but here, for ease of reading, all words are written in modern Russian letters, which, unlike Latin graphics, can convey any phonetics. Many words were without vowels or vowels were so reduced that they had to be replaced by hard and soft signs.
Let's start with Aryan pronouns. Almost all of them coincide with Russian

Ag (later - az) - I
You - you, appeal to one
You are you, an appeal to many
Wa - an appeal to two. The fact is that in addition to the singular and plural, there was also a dual when it came to two persons or objects.
We are two of us. The English We comes from the same word.
We are we
Nama - the two of us
me - me
Toboyo - you
Vama - by you two
By you - by you
To you - to you
Vayu - for you two
To you - to you

Now let's move on to nouns.

Mother is mother. Hence the Old Slavic mother, and the Latin mater.
Batr - father (dad). The word "father" comes from the Turkic "ata" and came to us from Church Slavonic, based on Old Bulgarian. Everyone remembers that the emergence of the Bulgarian ethnic group was the result of the conquest of the Slavs by the Turks. The men were killed and the women were taken as wives. The children, of course, began to speak the language of their mothers, but they called their mother in Slavic, and their father in Turkic. In Latin, "b" was stunned and changed to "p", resulting in pater, and in Germanic it changed to "f", resulting in father and Vater.
Brother - brother. In Latin, b changed to f and it turned out frater. Almost nothing has changed in English, and it turned out to be brother. Close to him is the German Bruder.
Svestr - sister
Dotir - daughter
son - son
Nept - nephew
Nept - niece. Hence the Latin neptis and the Old English nefa, now nephew.
Devre - brother-in-law (husband's brother)
Svkr - father-in-law
Svkr - mother-in-law
Snysh - daughter-in-law
Swat - matchmaker
Swat - matchmaking
Matchmaking - wedding
Sparva - dispute
Tsht - father-in-law
Tsht - mother-in-law
K'ng is the leader. Hence the king, and König, and the prince. "G" in Russian changed to "z", but remained in the word "princess". By the way, "g" to "z" changed very often. So, for example, the Aryan gim turned into the Russian winter.
Kshar is a king. The Indian name of the Kshatriyas also comes from this word.
Dyryn is a weapon. The Ukrainian drin is immediately remembered.
Bow - bow, curve
The beam is an arrow (a soft sign because it is feminine). Hence the Russian beam.
Rad - a beam, a branch, as well as a wheel spoke. From here comes the Latin radius, and the Russian rejoice. Here one would like to say that all this comes from Zadornov's "Ra", but the question still requires additional study.
Dyn - stock, flow. Hence the Don, and the Danube, and the bottom.
The house is a cattle paddock. Hence the Latin domāre - to tame, and the later Latin domesticus - domestic. In Greek, it turned into the name of a dwelling, and in this form it got into Russian already from Byzantium.
Durk is a fool. As you can see, this word does not come from the Turkish "durmak", where it means stop.
Between - the middle, between.
Meg is powerful. Hence the prefix mega- (from the ancient Greek μέγας) and the English much.
Fear is bes. The analogy with the demon suggests itself.
Dyvir - door, passage, hole
Hole - tear, tear, tear
Ok - eye
Uh - ear
Arma - hand. Hence the English arm
Brv - eyebrow, bridge, crossbar. This is where the log comes from again.
PES - penis
dick - pipe
Pesati - pissing like a man
Sseti - peeing like a woman
Boss - foot. Hence both Russian barefoot and Lithuanian basas
Mayor - death
Bel - light
Light is sweet. Hence the English sweet. The Russian word "light" comes from shvt - radiance.
Rus - white, clean.
The coat is black. Old English sweart, German schwarz and even Latin sordēre - dirt can be traced well. In Russian, the word “devil” was originally formed from the shworth, and the adjective “black” was already formed from it.
Colo - circle
Nail - night. Hence the Latin nocte, and the English night, which in the old days was read as it is written, and only recently "gh" turned into "th" when read.
Ustra - morning
Wind - weather. Hence the English weather, and the German Wetter.
wind - wind
Quet - flower, color
Stan - parking place, village.
Birg - a coast, a rock, a cliff, as well as a fortress, fenced with an earthen rampart. Hence the German Berg.
The roof is a cuckoo. Comes from kryk - scream.
Kut - dog (hence - kitten, i.e., puppy)
Baer - bear
Ўrsa - a bear. In Latin - ursa.
Lyut is a she-wolf. Hence the Latin lupa, and the Russian fierce.
Vylk is a wolf. The relationship of the German Wolf with him is also very obvious. From the same root comes the word "will", in Aryan- howl, and in English - will.
Gov is a cow. Hence our beef and English cow.
Kybyl is a horse. Hence our mare, and the French cheval. By the way, it was the Aryans who were the first to tame the horse. The Aryans also invented the wheel. Wheel in Aryan it was called to lie. In Russian, the concept of a tarataika has been preserved from this word. This word contains the root ўrat- (gate-) contained in the words rotate and vrata (gate). The word "lie", that is, to pervert the truth, also comes from this root. The raven that circles over potential prey also has the same root. In Latin, there was a word close to the word “fuck” “rota”, which also meant a wheel.

Kn - horse and, at the same time, the end. The fact is that even in Aryan times, the ridge of the roof was crowned with a horse's head, first real, later - wooden. The crowning of the house with a horse's head marked the end of construction. Descendants of the word "kn" are found only in Slavic languages.
Sheep - ram. Hence our sheep, and the Latin ovis. Sheep in Aryan was called pasa, from where the word pasti comes from, which came to us from the Aryan language unchanged.
A pig is a pig. English swine and German Schwein are also from here.
Mad - honey
Nose - nose
Muka - seed
Brush - flour, which is borosno in Ukrainian, and brushed in Old Slavonic.
Mukati - sow. This is where the word suffer comes from.
Grab - capture. From here and rob, and rake, and grab, and even the English grab.
The sun is the sun. In Latin, "n" fell out and solem remained, and in Germanic "l" fell out and left the German Sonne and the English sun. And only in Russian nothing fell out.
Spring - spring
Yar is a year. Hence the Slavic yara - spring, preserved in the word "spring", as well as the English year and the German Jahr.

Aryan nouns, like Russian ones, declined in the same cases. In other Aryan languages, cases have partially or completely disappeared, while in Russian they have been preserved.

Verbs in the indefinite form ended in -ty, corresponding to our -th.
Taўti - Russian to melt, English thaw, German thouwen
Tekti - Russian to flow, ancient Greek τήκω
Eat - eat in the meaning of eat
lie down - lie down
sit - sit
Berti - Russian to take, Old English beran, New English to bear
Ybati - to perform sexual intercourse while playing an active role. Same-root with the word " Batyr».
Birgti - protect, protect
Brdti - to roam. Very close to the word "wander".
Perdeti - fart. In the Germanic languages, "p" changed to "f" and the English fart and the German Furz were obtained, and from this German word there was a surname of the Minister of Culture Furtseva and the recent Minister of Education Fursenko.

Conjugation of the verb "to be"

	(you can also say “ag esm”, but personal pronouns, as a rule, were not used with the verb “to be”)
Maest (that is, there are two of us)
There are two of them

The numerals in the Aryan language also largely coincided with the late Russians.
Finger - finger, the first. In English, replacing n with f resulted in first.
Drg, two - second
Oino - one, one
Two - two
Three - three
Kvtyr - four
Quarter - quarter
Kvytro - four
Kvytroy - the fourth
Penkt - five
Penktoy - fifth
Shesht - six
Sepm - together (hence the seven, and the family, and even the Latin summa)
Oct - eight
New - nine
Dkt - ten
Two - twenty
Satam - one hundred, one hundred
Tysht - thousand

Mitanni Aryan language- an Indo-European substratum, found in texts from the ancient kingdom of Mitanni. The name "Mitannian Aryan" is used to avoid confusion, as the main and official language of the kingdom was the Hurrian language. Indo-European glosses in the Mitanni language are following groups concepts:

• proper names of Mitanni rulers;
• names of deities characteristic of the pra-Indo-Iranian religion;
• terms for horse breeding.

Genetic connections

The use of Indo-European names of rulers, along with the second Hurrian ones, as well as the inclusion of Indo-Iranian deities in texts as guarantors of oaths of representatives of the Mittani dynasty, is explained by their origin from a people for whom Mitanni Aryan language was native. The most probable homeland of the dynasty is the area near Lake Urmia in Northwestern Iran, in an area that Greek historians and geographers of the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. called Matiana or Matiena. In addition, from here it is believed that the term itself Mitanni denoted the dynasty itself and only later became a synonym for the kingdom, which was obviously originally called Khanigalbat, as follows from the Assyrian sources.

Despite the views of some scholars that Mitanni Aryan was the spoken language of the ruling stratum of the kingdom of Mitanni, the German researcher A. Kammenhuber managed to show that all Indo-Iranian terms and proper names identified in the Mitannian tradition reflect not Indo-Iranian, but Hurrian pronunciation. Consequently, by the time these terms were used in the texts, the language itself was either dead or not in use within the realm. However, many of Kammenhuber's arguments were later criticized by the Austrian linguist M. Mayrhofer.

A serious analysis of the language was carried out by a group of Soviet scientists led by I. M. Dyakonov. Controversial, in their opinion, remains the question of the position of this language, preserved by glosses, within the group of Indo-Iranian languages. In the collected material there are no features characteristic of the Iranian languages, at the same time there are features that are already archaic for the Indian Vedic texts, but also features that obviously arose in the languages ​​of the Indian branch only in the 1st millennium BC. e. and absent in Sanskrit. The conclusion from these data can be different:

1. "Mitanni Aryan"- a very ancient language of the Indian branch, however, it has already developed some features that arose in other Indian dialects only later;
2. "Mitanni Aryan"- this is a dialect of the future Iranian tribes, but referring to the time before the development phonetic features who separated the Iranian branch from the Indian ones - and, however, already having some later, still non-Iranian features;
3. "Mitanni Aryan" belongs to a branch intermediate between Iranian and Indian, namely the Dardo-Kafir.

This branch, now preserved only in North-Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir, is considered by specialists to be the first in terms of time of separation from the Indo-Iranian community and in time of migration to the Iranian-Indian region; therefore, it is quite possible that the dialects of this branch were at first more widespread in Iran, until they were supplanted by later waves of Iranian-speaking tribes proper, who appeared here no later than recent centuries II millennium BC. e. It is this solution that satisfies all the distinguishing features "Mitannian Aryan". It should be noted that Indo-Iranisms in culture, language and proper names are found only among the Hurrians of the Mitannian group: they are not in the early Hurrian inscriptions, they are not in Alalakh near the mouth of the Orontes River, nor in Kizzuwatna, nor in the Bogazköy archive (excluding diplomatic treaties with Mitanni), nor in Arraphe.

Usage examples

In an agreement between the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I and the Mitannian king Matiwatz c. 1380 BC e. the deities Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatya (Ashwins) are mentioned. Kikkuli's text on horse training mentions terms such as aika(Skt. eka, one), tera(Skt. tri, three), panza (pancha, five), satta (sapta, seven), na (nava, nine), vartana (vartana, a circle). numeral aika(one) is a particularly important indication that the Mitanni Aryan language was closer to Indo-Aryan languages than to other languages ​​of the Aryan branch.

Another text mentions the words babru(Skt. babhru, brown), parita (palita, grey) and pinkara (pingala, red).

Separate borrowings from Mitannian-Aryan penetrated in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. even in Akkadian: babrunnu"horse color" (cf. above), Magannu"gift" (other-ind. magha), susānu"horse trainer" (other ind. aśva sani), mariannu"charioteer" (cf. other ind. Marya"young man"). The latter etymology, however, is disputed by a number of researchers, in particular, I. M. Dyakonov and S. A. Starostin. According to their work, the term Marianne- purely Hurrian-Urartian (North Caucasian), and does not come from ancient Indian Marya- “husband, young man”, proving this not only by the presence of a good North Caucasian etymology of this word, but also by the fact that the institute Marianne existed not only among the Mitannians, who experienced Indo-Iranian influence, but also among all the Hurrians in general, including Alalakh and Arraphe.

Write a review on the article "Mitannian Aryan language"

Notes

Literature

• Story ancient east, vol. 2. M. 1988.
• Mallory J.P. Kuro-Araxes Culture, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
• Thieme P.// Journal of the American Oriental Society 80, 301-317 (1960)

An excerpt characterizing the Mitannian Aryan language

“Well, what are we going to do next?” Stella pulled me out of my dreams.
She was upset and sad that she could not see more. But I was very glad that she became herself again and now I was absolutely sure that from that day on she would definitely stop moping and be ready for any new “adventures” again.
“Forgive me, please, but I probably won’t do anything else today ...” I said apologetically. But thank you very much for helping.
Stella beamed. She loved to feel needed, so I always tried to show her how much she meant to me (which was absolutely true).
- OK. Let's go somewhere else, - she agreed complacently.
I think she, like me, was a little haggard, only, as always, she tried not to show it. I waved my hand to her... and ended up at home, on my favorite sofa, with a bunch of impressions that now I had to calmly comprehend, and slowly, without haste to "digest"...

By the time I was ten, I had become very attached to my father.
I have always adored him. But, unfortunately, in my early childhood he traveled a lot and was at home too rarely. Every day spent with him at that time was a holiday for me, which I then remembered for a long time, and I collected all the words spoken by dad, bit by bit, trying to keep them in my soul, like a precious gift.
From an early age, I always had the impression that I had to earn my father's attention. I don't know where it came from or why. No one has ever prevented me from seeing him or talking to him. On the contrary, my mother always tried not to disturb us if she saw us together. And dad was always happy to spend with me all his leftovers from work, free time. We went to the forest with him, planted strawberries in our garden, went to the river for a swim, or just talked under our favorite old apple tree, which is what I liked to do almost the most.

In the forest for the first mushrooms...

On the bank of the Nemunas River (Neman)

Dad was a great conversationalist, and I was ready to listen to him for hours if I had such an opportunity ... Probably just his strict attitude to life, arrangement life values, the never-changing habit of not getting anything for nothing, all this gave me the impression that I should also deserve it ...
I remember very well how, as a very young child, I hung around his neck when he returned home from business trips, endlessly repeating how much I love him. And dad looked at me seriously and answered: “If you love me, you don’t have to tell me this, but you always have to show ...”
And it was precisely these words of his that remained an unwritten law for me for the rest of my life ... True, I probably didn’t always succeed very well in “showing”, but I always tried honestly.
And in general, for everything that I am now, I owe it to my father, who, step by step, sculpted my future “I”, never giving any concessions, despite how selflessly and sincerely he loved me. In the most difficult years of my life, my father was my “island of calm”, where I could return at any time, knowing that they were always waiting for me there.
Having lived a very difficult and stormy life himself, he wanted to be sure for sure that I would be able to stand up for myself in any circumstances that were unfavorable for me and would not break down from any troubles in life.
Actually, I can say with all my heart that I was very, very lucky with my parents. If they were a little different, who knows where I would be now, and whether I would be at all ...
I also think that fate brought my parents together for a reason. Because it seemed to be absolutely impossible to meet them ...
My dad was born in Siberia, in the distant city of Kurgan. Siberia was not the original place of residence of my father's family. This was the decision of the then "fair" Soviet government and, as was always the case, it was not subject to discussion ...
So, my real grandparents, one fine morning, were rudely escorted out of their beloved and very beautiful, huge family estate, cut off from their usual life, and put into a completely creepy, dirty and cold car, following the frightening direction - Siberia ...
Everything that I will talk about further, I have collected bit by bit from the memoirs and letters of our relatives in France, England, as well as from the stories and memoirs of my relatives and friends in Russia and Lithuania.
To my great regret, I was able to do this only after my father's death, after many, many years ...
Their grandfather's sister Alexandra Obolenskaya (later Alexis Obolensky) was also exiled with them, as well as Vasily and Anna Seryogin, who voluntarily went, who followed grandfather by their own choice, since Vasily Nikandrovich for many years was grandfather's attorney in all his affairs and one of the most his close friends.

Alexandra (Alexis) Obolenskaya Vasily and Anna Seryogin

Probably, one had to be a truly FRIEND in order to find the strength in oneself to make such a choice and go to own will where they were going, as they go only to their own death. And this "death", unfortunately, was then called Siberia ...
I was always very sad and hurt for our, so proud, but so mercilessly trampled by Bolshevik boots, beautiful Siberia! .. She, just like many other things, was turned into cursed by people, frightening "earthly hell" ... And no words can tell how much suffering, pain, lives and tears this proud, but exhausted to the limit, earth absorbed into itself ... Is it because it was once the heart of our ancestral home, "far-sighted revolutionaries" decided to denigrate and destroy this land, choosing it for their diabolical purposes?... After all, for many people, even after many years, Siberia still remained a "cursed" land, where someone's father died, whose -someone's brother, someone's son... or maybe even someone's whole family.
My grandmother, whom I, to my great chagrin, never knew, at that time was pregnant with my father and endured the road very hard. But, of course, there was no need to wait for help from anywhere ... So the young Princess Elena, instead of the quiet rustle of books in the family library or the usual sounds of the piano, when she played her favorite works, this time listened only to the ominous sound of wheels, which, as it were menacingly they were counting the remaining hours of her life, so fragile and turned into a real nightmare... She was sitting on some sacks at the dirty carriage window and staring at the last miserable traces of the “civilization” so well known and familiar to her going farther and farther...
Grandpa's sister, Alexandra, with the help of friends, managed to escape at one of the stops. By common agreement, she was supposed to get (if she was lucky) to France, where this moment her whole family lived. True, none of those present could imagine how she could do this, but since this was their only, albeit small, but certainly the last hope, it was too much luxury to refuse it for their completely hopeless situation. At that moment, Alexandra's husband, Dmitry, was also in France, with the help of whom they hoped, already from there, to try to help the grandfather's family get out of that nightmare into which life had so ruthlessly thrown them, with the vile hands of brutalized people ...

Who are the Aryans? This question excites modern minds. However, history lovers can still somehow understand it. It became relevant under the rule of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. The German theory of "pure race" - a consequence of the error of the researcher Max Müller - still haunts some people. Some are extremely negative about it, especially in our country, while others are trying to find a rational grain. However, another question is now relevant: "Who are the Slavic-Aryans?" It surprises professional historians, sociologists and political scientists very much. Let's try to figure out where this term came from and who the arias are.

The concept of "Slavs"

We will try to reason objectively, one might say, from a scientific point of view, to what extent it is generally legitimate to say so. Slavs are an ethnic group, not a people. The difference is that an ethnos means a set of peoples that have common historical roots. As early as the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, the Slavs were divided into three branches: western (modern Kashubians, Lusatians, Czechs, Slovaks, etc.), southern (modern Serbs, Croats, Macedonians, etc.), eastern (modern Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians). Of course, the name of many historians was different: Antes, Sklavins, etc. There is no reliable information in history about a single Proto-Slavic people. Only linguists argue about it on the basis of an analysis of linguistic similarities and differences. It is by them that the approximate separation of one group of Slavs from another, the influence of other cultures, localities, etc. is determined. There is not a single real scientist who would use the term "Slavic-Aryans" in his work. Where does such a myth come from? Let's try to figure it out.

Myths and reality

Two unrelated concepts - "Slavs" and "Aryans" - were united by a certain Alexander Khinevich. His followers carried the idea to the masses. Despite the fact that Slavs and Aryans are the same incompatible concepts, such as, for example, "yellow is cold", many people liked the idea. In our country, “Rodoverstvo” is gaining popularity, that is, faith in ancestors. Calendars, holidays, time zones, phraseological units, etc. are rewritten under the fashion trend. There is an explanation for this: communism, with its rejection of Christianity, gave rise to several unspiritual generations who refused to accept Christianity during its revival. And the "Slavic-Aryans" came in handy. In addition, a new religion, neo-paganism, has become "true", alternative. In fact, it turned into a protest public system. And this attracted young romantics at all times. Add here the rejection of morality, rituals - and we get an ideal religion. The main postulate - "we are believers, but nothing is required of us" - made the idea of ​​neo-paganism attractive. Against this background, it is not difficult to inspire the idea of ​​not just “rodoverism”, but Slavic-Aryanism.

Who are the arias

Study of this concept started in the 19th century. At that time, distorted translations of Indian shastras began to reach Europe. Serious work on this subject belongs to Arthur Avalon, who first began to investigate this topic. The mass popularity of the author led to the growth of imitators, less talented, who began to replicate "sensations" in their works.

It is a mistake to believe that the Aryans are a single race, a nation. In the Indian shastras, there is indeed a mention of a single ancestral people, who is supposedly the ancestor of all past people. This idea was developed by the Frenchman Arthur de Gobineau, who created the racial theory. He called the Aryans a single people, from which all the rest descended. The idea received not just popularity, but large-scale development under the rule of Adolf Hitler. He modified it by declaring the superiority of the Germans over everyone else, and included the Germans among the direct "clean" descendants, in contrast to the others - "dirty, half-blooded".

In fact, there was no such thing as in relation to a single people. So where do myths come from? Who are the Aryans? They weren't invented artificially.

In the oldest set of Indian laws - "Manavadharmashastra", the term "arya" is translated as "noble". So the representatives of the higher castes were called - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas. That is, these are the three highest castes of the great people, saying modern language- "cream of society". In addition to the Aryans, this people also had two other castes - Shudras and Chandalas.

Arya - friend or foe?

Despite this, the admissibility of the existence of a single Proto-Indo-European people is not canceled. Many are European and close to each other. All of them belong to the Indo-European group. Therefore, it can be assumed that there was still a single people. Historians believe that this concept should be considered a group of tribes of Ancient Iran. Literally, "ary" is translated from as "friend." And at the same time as an "enemy". opposite meaning of the same word is a common practice in ancient languages. That is, it could be both a friend and an enemy. Perhaps it was a man from a foreign tribe. That is, an Aryan is a foreigner coming from another tribal community. He can be really a friend and then become an enemy. The hypothesis is confirmed by the presence of the god Aryaman in the Vedic pantheon. He is just responsible for friendship and hospitality.

Ukraine - the birthplace of the Aryans?

Most researchers today are inclined to believe that the Aryans lived on the territory of Ancient Iran. No need to tie it to a modern Shiite state in the Middle East. Its territory is relatively small. Ancient Iran is the vast territory of the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea. That is why among Ukrainian historians there is an opinion that the Proto-Europeans lived on the territory of modern Ukraine more than 5 thousand years ago.

The hypothesis of a single great people

There is a hypothesis that a single pra-people (Indo-Europeans, Aryans) was divided into two branches: Iranian and Indo-Aryan. The term "Iran" itself means "land of the Aryans". In confirmation of this, scientists have proved the similarity of the Iranian Avesta. According to the theory, a group separated from united Iran, possibly one of the tribes, and around 1700-1300. BC e. She went to India, where she stayed forever. If this is true, then the theory of the origin of the Proto-Europeans from the territory of Ukraine has the right to exist.

linguistic theory

Linguists also support the territory of origin of the Aryans from the Eastern and Central Europe, since here a single language branches into many dialects, which is logical when it natural development in one territory. In India, there is only one Indo-European branch, which speaks more of migration than of origin and development. In addition, here the aliens encountered a group speaking local languages, which later affected the development of the language as a whole.

Kurgan hypothesis

Archaeologists are also inclined to believe that the Aryans originally lived in the Black Sea region. Artifacts of the famous Yamskaya culture are cited as evidence. It is believed that the first chariots were invented here, which made it possible to quickly capture huge areas. Such theories, unfortunately, give rise to pseudoscientific fabrications based on scientific facts. Like, the direct descendants of the Aryans are Russians, Germans, Ukrainians or anyone else. Against this background, various Slavic-Aryans appear. It is possible that common ancestors originated from the territory of the Black Sea region, but later they settled and divided over time into many other peoples, and subsequently their descendants returned to these lands. Followers of the exclusivity and "purity" of one nation in comparison with others manipulate these facts, tying the ancient single root to only one leaf, and not to the whole tree.

Cultural heritage of the Aryans

The Aryans left behind many written monuments. These are the Vedas, Avesta, Mahabharata, Ramayana. From a nomadic people they turned into settled farmers. Raised cows and horses. They were familiar with irrigation, knew how to forge copper and gold products. Bow and arrows were used as the main weapons. They did not have a pronounced caste system, as in India. However, the top of the hierarchy - priests and aristocrats - enjoyed great influence.

findings

Summing up, we can say that there may never have been a single race of Aryans. Most likely, thanks to a certain group of tribes, perhaps not even close relatives, extended its influence over vast territories. Hence the emergence of a single Indo-European language of peoples who have never been close historically.

However, there is no unequivocal answer to the question of who the Aryans are. Every day we all move away from him, and scientific theories replaced by false claims. It is possible that the Aryans are a people who spread their influence. But it is possible that this is a group of unrelated, but culturally similar tribes that settled on different sides of a single center.

Indo-Aryan languages ​​(Indian) - a group of related languages, dating back to the ancient Indian language. Included (together with the Iranian languages ​​​​and closely related Dardic languages) in the Indo-Iranian languages, one of the branches of Indo European languages. Distributed in South Asia: northern and central India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Republic of Maldives, Nepal; outside this region - Romani languages, Domari and Parya (Tajikistan). Total number about 1 billion speakers. (estimate, 2007). ancient Indian languages.

Ancient Indian language. Indian languages ​​come from dialects of the ancient Indian language, which had two literary forms - Vedic (the language of the sacred "Vedas") and Sanskrit (created by Brahmin priests in the Ganges valley in the first half - the middle of the first millennium BC). The ancestors of the Indo-Aryans came out of the ancestral home of the "Aryan expanse" at the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd millennium. A related language to Indo-Aryan is reflected in proper names, theonyms and some lexical borrowings in the cuneiform texts of the state of Mitanni and the Hittites. Indo-Aryan writing in the Brahmi syllabary originated in the 4th-3rd centuries BC.

The Middle Indian period is represented by numerous languages ​​and dialects that were in use in oral, and then in written form from the middle. 1st millennium BC e. Of these, Pali (the language of the Buddhist Canon) is the most archaic, followed by Prakrits (the Prakrits of inscriptions are more archaic) and Apabhransha (dialects that developed by the middle of the 1st millennium AD as a result of the development of Prakrits and are a transitional link to the New Indian languages ).

The New Indian period begins after the 10th century. Represented by approximately three dozen major languages and large quantity dialects, sometimes very different from each other.

In the west and northwest they border on Iranian (Balochi, Pashto) and Dardic languages, in the north and northeast - with Tibeto-Burman languages, in the east - with a number of Tibeto-Burman and Mon-Khmer languages, in the south - with Dravidian languages ​​(Telugu, Kannada). In India, linguistic islands of other linguistic groups (Munda languages, Mon-Khmer, Dravidian, etc.) are interspersed in the array of Indo-Aryan languages.

1. Hindi and Urdu (Hindustani) are two varieties of the same New Indian literary language; Urdu is the state language of Pakistan (the capital of Islamabad), has a written language based on Arabic alphabet; Hindi (state language of India (New Delhi) - based on the Old Indian script Devanagari.
2. Bengal (State of India - West Bengal, Bangladesh (Kolkata))
3. Punjabi ( East End Pakistan, Punjab state of India)
4. Lahnda
5. Sindhi (Pakistan)
6. Rajasthani (Northwest India)
7. Gujarati - s-w subgroup
8. Marathas - western subgroup
9. Sinhalese - insular subgroup
10. Nepal - Nepal (Kathmandu) - central subgroup
11. Bihari - Indian state of Bihar - eastern subgroup
12. Oriya - ind. state of Orissa - eastern subgroup
13. Assamese - Ind. Assam State, Bangladesh, Bhutan (Thimphu) - east. subgroup
14. Gypsy -
15. Kashmiri - Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan - Dardic group
16. Vedic is the language of the most ancient sacred books of the Indians - the Vedas, which were formed in the first half of the second millennium BC.
17. Sanskrit has been the literary language of the ancient Indians since the 3rd century BC. to 4th century AD
18. Pali - Central Indian literary and cult language of the medieval era
19. Prakrits - various spoken Middle Indian dialects

Iranian languages ​​- a group of related languages ​​\u200b\u200bas part of the Aryan branch Indo-European family languages. Distributed mainly in the Middle East, Central Asia and Pakistan.

The Iranian group was formed according to the generally accepted version as a result of the separation of languages ​​from the Indo-Iranian branch in the territory of the Volga region and the southern Urals during the period of the Andronovo culture. There is also another version of the formation of the Iranian languages, according to which they separated from the main body of the Indo-Iranian languages ​​on the territory of the BMAC culture. The expansion of the Aryans in ancient times took place to the south and southeast. As a result of migrations, Iranian languages ​​spread by the 5th century BC. in large areas from Northern Black Sea to East Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Altai (Pazyryk culture), and from the Zagros mountains, east Mesopotamia and Azerbaijan to the Hindu Kush.

The most important milestone in the development of the Iranian languages ​​was the identification of the Western Iranian languages, which spread westward from Deshte-Kevir along the Iranian plateau, and the Eastern Iranian languages ​​opposed to them. The work of the Persian poet Firdousi Shahnameh reflects the confrontation between the ancient Persians and the nomadic (also semi-nomadic) East Iranian tribes, nicknamed by the Persians as Turans, and their habitats as Turan.

In II - I centuries. BC. the Great Central Asian Migration of Peoples takes place, as a result of which the Eastern Iranians populate the Pamirs, Xinjiang, Indian lands south of the Hindu Kush, and invade Sistan.

As a result of the expansion of Turkic-speaking nomads from the first half of the 1st millennium AD. Iranian languages ​​begin to be supplanted by Turkic ones, first in the Great Steppe, and with the beginning of the 2nd millennium in Central Asia, Xinjiang, Azerbaijan and a number of regions of Iran. The relic Ossetian language (a descendant of the Alano-Sarmatian language) in the mountains of the Caucasus, as well as the descendants of the Saka languages, the languages ​​of the Pashtun tribes and the Pamir peoples, remained from the steppe Iranian world.

The current state of the Iranian-speaking array was largely determined by the expansion of the Western Iranian languages, which began under the Sassanids, but gained full strength after the Arab invasion:

The spread of the Persian language throughout the territory of Iran, Afghanistan and the south of Central Asia and the massive displacement of local Iranian and sometimes non-Iranian languages ​​in the respective territories, as a result of which the modern Persian and Tajik communities were formed.

Expansion of the Kurds into Upper Mesopotamia and the Armenian Highlands.

Migration of the semi-nomads of Gorgan to the southeast and the formation of the Baloch language.

The phonetics of the Iranian languages ​​shares many similarities with the Indo-Aryan languages ​​in development from the Indo-European state. The ancient Iranian languages ​​belong to the inflectional-synthetic type with a developed system of inflectional forms of declension and conjugation and are thus similar to Sanskrit, Latin and Old Church Slavonic. This is especially true of the Avestan language and, to a lesser extent, Old Persian. Avestan has eight cases, three numbers, three genders, inflectional-synthetic verb forms present, aorist, imperfect, perfect, injunctiva, conjunctiva, optative, imperative, there is a developed word formation.

1. Persian - writing based on the Arabic alphabet - Iran (Tehran), Afghanistan (Kabul), Tajikistan (Dushanbe) - southwestern Iranian group.

2. Dari is the literary language of Afghanistan

3. Pashto - since the 30s the state language of Afghanistan - Afghanistan, Pakistan - East Iranian subgroup

4. Baloch - Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan (Ashgabat), Oman (Muscat), United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi) - northwestern subgroup.

5. Tajik - Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan (Tashkent) - Western Iranian subgroup.

6. Kurdish - Turkey (Ankara), Iran, Iraq (Baghdad), Syria (Damascus), Armenia (Yerevan), Lebanon (Beirut) - Western Iranian subgroup.

7. Ossetian - Russia (North Ossetia), South Ossetia (Tskhinval) - East Iranian subgroup

8. Tatsky - Russia (Dagestan), Azerbaijan (Baku) - western subgroup

9. Talysh - Iran, Azerbaijan - northwestern Iranian subgroup

10. Caspian dialects

11. Pamir languages ​​are the unwritten languages ​​of the Pamirs.

12. Yagnob is the language of the Yaghnobi, the inhabitants of the Yagnob river valley in Tajikistan.

14. Avestan

15. Pahlavi

16. Median

17. Parthian

18. Sogdian

19. Khorezmian

20. Scythian

21. Bactrian

22. Saky

Slavic group. Slavic languages ​​are a group of related languages ​​of the Indo-European family. Distributed throughout Europe and Asia. The total number of speakers is about 400-500 million people [source not specified 101 days]. They differ in a great degree of closeness to each other, which is found in the structure of the word, the use grammatical categories, sentence structure, semantics, system of regular sound correspondences, morphonological alternations. This proximity is explained by the unity of the origin of the Slavic languages ​​and their long and intense contacts with each other at the level of literary languages ​​and dialects.

Long-term independent development Slavic peoples in different ethnic, geographical, historical and cultural conditions, their contacts with various ethnic groups led to the emergence of differences in material, functional, etc. The Slavic languages ​​within the Indo-European family are closest to the Baltic languages. The similarity between the two groups served as the basis for the theory of the "Balto-Slavic proto-language", according to which the Balto-Slavic proto-language first emerged from the Indo-European proto-language, later splitting into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. However, many scientists explain their special closeness by the long contact of the ancient Balts and Slavs, and deny the existence of the Balto-Slavic language. It has not been established in which territory the separation of the Slavic language continuum from the Indo-European / Balto-Slavic took place. It can be assumed that it took place to the south of those territories that, according to various theories, belong to the territory of the Slavic ancestral homelands. From one of the Indo-European dialects (Proto-Slavic), the Proto-Slavic language was formed, which is the ancestor of all modern Slavic languages. The history of the Proto-Slavic language was longer than the history of individual Slavic languages. For a long time it developed as a single dialect with an identical structure. Dialect variants arose later. The process of transition of the Proto-Slavic language into independent languages ​​took place most actively in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium AD. e., during the formation of the early Slavic states on the territory of the South-East and of Eastern Europe. During this period, the territory of Slavic settlements increased significantly. The areas of various geographical areas with various natural and climatic conditions, the Slavs entered into relationships with the population of these territories, standing at different levels cultural development. All this was reflected in the history of the Slavic languages.

The history of the Proto-Slavic language is divided into 3 periods: the most ancient - before the establishment of close Balto-Slavic language contact, the period of the Balto-Slavic community and the period of dialect fragmentation and the beginning of the formation of independent Slavic languages.

Eastern subgroup

1. Russian

2. Ukrainian

3. Belarusian

Southern subgroup

1. Bulgarian - Bulgaria (Sofia)

2. Macedonian - Macedonia (Skopje)

3. Serbo-Croatian - Serbia (Belgrade), Croatia (Zagreb)

4. Slovenian - Slovenia (Ljubljana)

Western subgroup

1. Czech - Czech Republic (Prague)

2. Slovak - Slovakia (Bratislava)

3. Polish - Poland (Warsaw)

4. Kashubian - a dialect of Polish

5. Lusatian - Germany

Dead: Old Church Slavonic, Polabian, Pomeranian

Baltic group. Baltic languages ​​- language a group representing a special branch of the Indo-European group of languages.

Total population speakers - more than 4.5 million people. Distribution - Latvia, Lithuania, earlier the territories of (modern) north-east of Poland, Russia (Kaliningrad region) and north-west of Belarus; even earlier (before the 7th-9th, in some places the 12th centuries) up to the upper reaches of the Volga, the Oka basin, the middle Dnieper and Pripyat.

According to one theory, the Baltic languages ​​are not a genetic formation, but the result of an early convergence [source not specified 374 days]. The group includes 2 living languages ​​(Latvian and Lithuanian; sometimes the Latgalian language is distinguished separately, which is officially considered the dialect of Latvian); the Prussian language attested in the monuments, which became extinct in the 17th century; at least 5 languages ​​known only by toponymy and onomastics (Curonian, Yatvingian, Galindian/Golyadian, Zemgalian and Selonian).

1. Lithuanian - Lithuania (Vilnius)

2. Latvian - Latvia (Riga)

3. Latgalian - Latvia

Dead: Prussian, Yatvyazhsky, Kurzhsky, etc.

German group. The history of the development of the Germanic languages ​​is usually divided into 3 periods:

ancient (from the emergence of writing to the XI century) - formation individual languages;

middle (XII-XV centuries) - the development of writing in the Germanic languages ​​​​and the expansion of their social functions;

new (from the 16th century to the present) - the formation and normalization of national languages.

In the reconstructed Proto-Germanic language, a number of researchers single out a layer of vocabulary that does not have Indo-European etymology - the so-called pre-Germanic substratum. In particular, these are the majority of strong verbs, the conjugation paradigm of which also cannot be explained from the Proto-Indo-European language. The displacement of consonants compared to the Proto-Indo-European language - the so-called. "Grimm's law" - supporters of the hypothesis also explain the influence of the substrate.

The development of the Germanic languages ​​from antiquity to the present day is associated with numerous migrations of their speakers. Germanic dialects ancient times divided into 2 main groups: Scandinavian (northern) and continental (southern). In II-I centuries BC e. part of the tribes from Scandinavia moved to the southern coast of the Baltic Sea and formed an East Germanic group, opposing the West Germanic (formerly southern) group. The East Germanic tribe of the Goths, moving south, penetrated the territory of the Roman Empire up to the Iberian Peninsula, where they mixed with the local population (V-VIII centuries).

Inside the West Germanic area in the 1st century AD. e. 3 groups of tribal dialects were distinguished: Ingveon, Istveon and Erminon. The resettlement in the 5th-6th centuries, part of the Ingvaeonic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) to the British Isles predetermined the development of the English language in the future Complex Interaction West Germanic dialects on the continent created the prerequisites for the formation of Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old Low Frankish and Old High German languages. Scandinavian dialects after their isolation in the 5th century. from the continental group they were divided into eastern and western subgroups, on the basis of the first Swedish, Danish and Old Gutnish languages ​​were later formed, on the basis of the second - Norwegian, as well as insular languages ​​​​- Icelandic, Faroese and Norn.

The formation of national literary languages ​​was completed in England in the 16th-17th centuries, in the Scandinavian countries in the 16th century, in Germany in the 18th century. The spread of the English language outside of England led to the creation of its variants in the USA, Canada, and Australia. German in Austria it is represented by its Austrian variant.

North German subgroup.

1. Danish - Denmark (Copenhagen), northern Germany

2. Swedish - Sweden (Stockholm), Finland (Helsinki) - contact subgroup

3. Norwegian - Norway (Oslo) - continental subgroup

4. Icelandic - Iceland (Reykjavik), Denmark

5. Faroese - Denmark

West German subgroup

1. English - UK, USA, India, Australia (Canberra), Canada (Ottawa), Ireland (Dublin), New Zealand (Wellington)

2. Dutch - Netherlands (Amsterdam), Belgium (Brussels), Suriname (Paramaribo), Aruba

3. Frisian - Netherlands, Denmark, Germany

4. German - Low German and High German - Germany, Austria (Vienna), Switzerland (Bern), Liechtenstein (Vaduz), Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg

5. Yiddish - Israel (Jerusalem)

East German subgroup

1. Gothic - Visigothic and Ostrogothic

2. Burgundian, Vandal, Gepid, Herulian

Roman group. Romance languages ​​(lat. Roma "Rome") - a group of languages ​​​​and dialects included in the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family and genetically ascending to a common ancestor - Latin. The name Romanesque comes from the Latin word romanus (Roman). The science that studies Romance languages, their origin, development, classification, etc. is called romance and is one of the subsections of linguistics (linguistics). The peoples who speak them are also called Romance. The Romance languages ​​developed as a result of the divergent (centrifugal) development of the oral tradition of different geographical dialects of the once unified vernacular Latin language and gradually became isolated from the source language and from each other as a result of diverse demographic, historical and geographical processes. This epoch-making process was initiated by Roman colonists who settled regions (provinces) of the Roman Empire remote from the capital - the city of Rome - in the course of a complex ethnographic process called ancient Romanization in the period of the 3rd century BC. BC e. - 5 in. n. e. During this period, the various dialects of Latin are influenced by the substrate. For a long time, the Romance languages ​​were perceived only as vernacular dialects of the classical Latin language, and therefore were practically not used in writing. The formation of the literary forms of the Romance languages ​​was largely based on the traditions of classical Latin, which allowed them to converge again in lexical and semantic terms already in modern times.

1. French - France (Paris), Canada, Belgium (Brussels), Switzerland, Lebanon (Beirut), Luxembourg, Monaco, Morocco (Rabat).
2. Provencal - France, Italy, Spain, Monaco
3. Italian –Italy, San Marino, Vatican City, Switzerland
4. Sardinian - Sardinia (Greece)
5. Spanish - Spain, Argentina (Buenos Aires), Cuba (Havana), Mexico (Mexico City), Chile (Santiago), Honduras (Tegucigalpa)
6. Galician - Spain, Portugal (Lisbon)
7. Catalan - Spain, France, Italy, Andorra (Andorra la Vella)
8. Portuguese - Portugal, Brazil (Brazilia), Angola (Luanda), Mozambique (Maputo)
9. Romanian - Romania (Bucharest), Moldova (Chisinau)
10. Moldavian – Moldova
11. Macedonian-Romanian - Greece, Albania (Tirana), Macedonia (Skopje), Romania, Bulgarian
12. Romansh – Switzerland
13. Creole languages– crossed Romance with local languages

Italian:

1. Latin

2. Medieval Vulgar Latin

3. Oscan, Umbrian, Saber

Celtic group. The Celtic languages ​​are one of the western groups of the Indo-European family, close, in particular, to the Italic and Germanic languages. Nevertheless, the Celtic languages, apparently, did not form a specific unity with other groups, as was sometimes believed earlier (in particular, the hypothesis of Celto-Italic unity, defended by A. Meie, is most likely incorrect).

The spread of the Celtic languages, as well as the Celtic peoples, in Europe is associated with the spread of the Hallstatt (VI-V centuries BC), and then the La Tene (2nd half of the 1st millennium BC) archaeological cultures. The ancestral home of the Celts is probably located in Central Europe, between the Rhine and the Danube, but they settled very widely: in the 1st half of the 1st millennium BC. e. they penetrated the British Isles, around the 7th century. BC e. - in Gaul, in the VI century. BC e. - to the Iberian Peninsula, in the V century. BC e. they spread to the south, cross the Alps and come to northern Italy, finally, by the 3rd century. BC e. they reach Greece and Asia Minor. We know relatively little about the ancient stages of the development of the Celtic languages: the monuments of that era are very scarce and not always easy to interpret; nevertheless, data from the Celtic languages ​​(especially Old Irish) play important role in the reconstruction of the Indo-European parent language.

Goidel subgroup

1. Irish - Ireland
2. Scottish - Scotland (Edinburgh)
3. Manx - dead - the language of the Isle of Man (in the Irish Sea)

Brythonic subgroup

1. Breton - Brittany (France)

2. Welsh - Wales (Cardiff)

3. Cornish - dead - in Cornwall - peninsula southwest of England

Gallic subgroup

1. Gaulish - extinct since the formation of the French language; was common in Gaul, Northern Italy, in the Balkans and Asia Minor

Greek group. The Greek group is currently one of the most peculiar and relatively small language groups (families) within the Indo-European languages. At the same time, the Greek group is one of the most ancient and well-studied since antiquity. At present, the main representative of the group with full set language features is the Greek language of Greece and Cyprus, which has a long and complex history. The presence of a single full-fledged representative today brings the Greek group closer to the Albanian and Armenian, which are also actually represented by one language each.

At the same time, other Greek languages ​​and extremely isolated dialects existed earlier, which either died out or are on the verge of extinction as a result of assimilation.

1. modern Greek - Greece (Athens), Cyprus (Nicosia)

2. ancient Greek

3. Middle Greek, or Byzantine

Albanian group.

Albanian (alb. Gjuha shqipe) is the language of the Albanians, the indigenous population of Albania itself and part of the population of Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Lower Italy and Sicily. The number of speakers is about 6 million people.

The self-name of the language - "shkip" - comes from the local word "shipe" or "shpee", which actually means "stony soil" or "rock". That is, the self-name of the language can be translated as "mountain". The word "shkip" can also be interpreted as "understandable" (language).

Armenian group.

Armenian is an Indo-European language, usually classified as a separate group, rarely combined with Greek and Phrygian. Among the Indo-European languages, it is one of the ancient written languages. The Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405-406. n. e. (see Armenian script). The total number of speakers around the world is about 6.4 million people. During its long history the Armenian language has been in contact with many languages. Being a branch of the Indo-European language, Armenian later came into contact with various Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages ​​- both living and now dead, adopting from them and bringing to our days much of what direct written evidence could not preserve. At different times, Hittite and hieroglyphic Luwian, Hurrian and Urartian, Akkadian, Aramaic and Syriac, Parthian and Persian, Georgian and Zan, Greek and Latin came into contact with the Armenian language at different times. For the history of these languages ​​and their speakers, data Armenian language are of paramount importance in many cases. These data are especially important for urartologists, Iranianists, Kartvelists, who draw many facts of the history of the languages ​​they study from Armenian.

Hitto-Luvian group. The Anatolian languages ​​are a branch of the Indo-European languages ​​(also known as the Hitto-Luvian languages). According to glottochronology, they separated quite early from other Indo-European languages. All languages ​​of this group are dead. Their carriers lived in the II-I millennium BC. e. on the territory of Asia Minor (the Hittite kingdom and the small states that arose on its territory), were later conquered and assimilated by the Persians and / or Greeks.

The oldest monuments of the Anatolian languages ​​are the Hittite cuneiform and Luwian hieroglyphics (there were also brief inscriptions in the Palai language, the most archaic of the Anatolian languages). Through the work of the Czech linguist Friedrich (Bedrich) the Terrible, these languages ​​were identified as Indo-European, which contributed to their decipherment.

Later inscriptions in Lydian, Lycian, Sidetic, Carian, and other languages ​​were written in Asia Minor alphabets (partially deciphered in the 20th century).

1. Hittite

2. Luuvian

3. Palai

4. Carian

5. Lydian

6. Lycian

Tocharian group. Tocharian languages ​​- a group of Indo-European languages, consisting of the dead "Tocharian A" ("East Tocharian") and "Tocharian B" ("Western Tocharian"). They were spoken in the territory of modern Xinjiang. The monuments that have come down to us (the first of them were discovered at the beginning of the 20th century by the Hungarian traveler Aurel Stein) date back to the 6th-8th centuries. The self-name of the carriers is unknown, they are conventionally called "Tochars": the Greeks called them Τοχάριοι, and the Turks - toxri.

1. Tocharian A - in Chinese Turkestan
2. Tocharsky V - ibid.

About forty years ago it was thought that the affinity of language meant kinship by blood, and it was customary to speak of the Aryan family and the Aryan race. Then the pendulum swung in the opposite direction, and Oppert established: "that there are Aryan languages, but there is no Aryan race at all." One can ask oneself if the reaction has gone too far. It may be admitted that the word "Aryan" should be regarded in principle as a linguistic term rather than as an ethnic one, and that, although the Aryan languages ​​go back to a common root, the peoples who speak these languages ​​are for the most part not at all related by blood. But since the Aryan language must have originated in one of the races among which it is currently in use, it would be right to investigate which of them most likely formed it.

The Aryans, before the division, no doubt roamed as nomadic hunters and shepherds over a very wide area, multiplying little by little and gradually incorporating other tribes into their composition. A significant part of the changes in the original Aryan language is attributed to the fact that the Aryan language passed to the non-Aryan races. On the basis of anthropological and archaeological considerations, we have seen that of the four Neolithic races of Europe, two must be left aside as having no right to represent the original Aryans, and that of the other two, the probability obviously leans in favor of the short-headed race of Central Europe. Linguistic indications must now be taken into consideration, and we have to investigate mutual relations Aryan languages ​​and ask yourself how they differentiated, how the original Aryan language could develop and whether it could be the language of that race, which, from another point of view, seems to have the main rights to represent the original Aryan race.

There are currently nine families of the Aryan language: Hindus, Armenians, Hellenes, Italics, Celts, Teutons, Lithuanians or Letts and Slavs. Moreover, there were many families now extinct, such as Phrygians, Dacians and Thracians.

The families that have the closest relationship can be grouped together, giving six families instead of nine, these will be the families: Indo-Iranian, Armenian, Hellenic, Celto-Italic, Teutonic and Lithuanian-Slavic.

Zend and Sanskrit are so closely related that we may surmise the existence of a generative language common to both of these languages, which we shall call, for convenience, Indo-Iranian. Similarly, Lithuanian, on the one hand, is closely related to Slavic and, on the other hand, less closely to Teutonic.

The old traditions of classical philology, dating back to the time when only two Aryan literatures were known, led to the idea that the two classical languages, Latin and Greek, were two brother languages, very closely related; but this opinion is now yielding to the conviction that the closest affinity exists between the Italic and Celtic languages, that Greek comes closest to the Indo-Iranian and Armenian languages.

Schmidt only lists ninety-nine words that are in Greek and Indo-Iranian, and one hundred and thirty-two that are only in Greek and Latin. Some of these latter are, however, words referring to civilization, or names of animals and plants, in all probability not original.

The more important fact is that the increment and the doubling aorist exist only in Greek and Indo-Iranian, and that these languages ​​also have special forms of the non-final mood. The names of six Greek deities can be explained from Sanskrit, while only three names are common to Greek and Latin.

We have seen that while some words relating to pastoral life and rudimentary agriculture are common to Latin and Greek, the names of weapons are different; Greek coincides for the most part with Sanskrit, and Latin with Celtic. The relative terms of separation are also indicated by numerals. The original Aryans could only count to one hundred. The word for a thousand is common in Greek and Sanskrit, but not in Latin. Latin and Celtic have a common expression for a thousand, and the same commonality exists for Lithuanian and Germanic.

From this we conclude that the separation of Greek and Latin, as well as Latin and Lithuanian, took place relatively early, but that the separation of Latin and Celtic, Greek and Indo-Iranian, Lithuanian and Germanic took place in a relatively recent era.

On the basis of other considerations, the Italic languages ​​seem to be much more closely related to Celtic than to Greek. The Umbrians, the northernmost of the Italic peoples, were geographically in contact with the Celts, but they had to be separated from the Hellenes by the Illyrians. The extinct languages ​​Thracian and Dacian probably formed a link between Greek and Celtic.

Buckmeister (230) determined by means of local names the former area of ​​the Celtic language. It included the valleys of the Rhine, Main and upper Danube, just like Belgium, Great Britain and parts of Switzerland and France. The Celtic territory constituted the large central area of ​​the Aryan languages. It extended east to the borders of Dacia, unless Dacia itself was a member of the Celtic group.

The characteristic Celtic name "Lugdunum" is repeated in the names of "Laon, Leiden" on the lower Rhine, "Lyon" on the Rhone and on the upper Garon at the foot of the Pyrenees. We find "Batavodurum" at the mouth of the Rhine and "Boiodurum" at the confluence of the Danube with the Inn.

Southern Germany, before it was Teutonized by the conquerors who came from the north, was occupied by the Celts, as is proved by the Celtic names found in the valley of the Danube and even in the valley of the Sava (231). Through Carniolia, which served as the high road along which so many invasions into Italy passed, the Umbrians, a people whose language has a close affinity with the Celtic language, could reach the valleys of Northern Italy.

Some of the most ancient and profound morphological changes in the Aryan language are those that distinguish the Celto-Italic languages. This is the formation of a new passive voice, new future and new past perfect. On this basis, it is suggested that the Celto-Italic languages ​​may have already separated while the rest of the Aryan languages ​​remained connected. The Celto-Italic unity is less clear than the unity of the Indo-Iranian or Slavic-Lithuanian languages, since its origin dates back to an era more distant.

The affinity of Celtic with Teutonic is less profound than that of Celtic with Latin. It is found chiefly in terms of civilization rather than in morphological structure, and reveals political supremacy and geographic contiguity rather than primitive organic unity.

The affinity of the Teutonic family with the Slavic-Lithuanian is more significant and more complete, since it exists not only in words related to civilization, but also in grammar. The final separation of the Slavs and Teutons was to take place relatively late. The Slavic and Teutonic languages ​​generally coincide in terms of metallurgy, but differ in terms of weapons, agriculture, and navigation. There is a close relationship between the Slavic-Lithuanian and Teutonic languages, which is indicated by the fact that both change the original language. bh on the m at the end of some cases; this change is not found in other Aryan languages. On the other hand, the affinity between Slavo-Lithuanian and Indo-Iranian is found in the fact that in approximately sixteen words they change originally k on the s, which change does not occur in the Teutonic language. Iranian name bhaga, denoting the supreme deity, is also common to the Slavs and Phrygians, but is not found in either Greek or Latin. Thus, the Slavic-Lithuanian family forms a link between the Iranian and Teutonic languages, while Greek, on the one hand, approaches Iranian, and on the other, to the Italic languages.

At present, it is generally admitted that the European languages ​​are no less archaic than the Asiatic languages, considering that the literary monuments of Sanskrit date back to an era more distant than the monuments of European languages. Zend, as we have said, may go back to the sixth century BC, and Sanskrit to the tenth. But modern Persian language retained far less of the original Aryan grammar than any other Aryan language except English. He freed himself from declensions and although he retained some of the personal suffixes of the verb, he lost the old tenses. The neo-Hindu languages, which emerged from the dialects or procrites about the tenth century A.D., lost their most archaic features that distinguish Sanskrit. Neuter gender gone, new plural and new endings replaced the old forms, and the endings of tenses were replaced by new forms derived from participles. It cannot be doubted that this distinction of old forms was hastened, if not caused, by the adoption of the Aryan language by the Indian non-Aryan tribes.

The Lithuanians did the opposite. The language did not spread, and those who speak it today are, in all likelihood, direct descendants of people who spoke the Lithuanian language two, and perhaps three thousand years ago. From this it came about that the grammatical forms in it survived to a degree much more conspicuous than in any other of the existing Aryan languages. Between existing languages one Lithuanian language retained the dual number and the old declension. Its phonetic system is not inferior to that of Sanskrit; and in some respects even more archaic, although Sanskrit literature is almost three thousand years old. older than literature Lithuanian, leading its origin only from the beginning of the eighteenth century.

As a result, the Latin, Celtic, and Lithuanian languages ​​are those that have deviated the least from the original system of consonances. The Slavic and Indo-Iranian languages ​​formed a large number of whistling and other consonants.

Primary Aryan had only one sibilant and two nasals, but Sanskrit has four sibilants and five nasals. The head or lingual consonants, which are a feature of the Hindu languages, are thought to have originated from ancient Dravidian influences. Formerly it was thought that the original Aryan language had only one sound for R and l, but at present they think that there were two of them, since the European languages ​​\u200b\u200bin this respect are more primitive than Asian ones; in the same way, it was formerly thought that the Hindu vowel system was more primitive than the European system, but at the present time a rather opposite opinion is in circulation among scholars. Greek retained the old verb tenses better than Latin and retained the dual. Sanskrit normally replaced the former instrumental found in Latin with the genitive senatu-d and in Oscan fructu-d and disappeared in all other Aryan languages, with the exception of Zend. Latin, however, formed three new tenses: the future on bo, past imperfect on bam and past perfect on vi; example: amabo, amabam, amavi. The Italic languages, like Celtic and Lithuanian, also created the middle voice, which later became passive.

Greek is more archaic than Latin in that it retains the old neuter, dual, old tenses, and original declensions. The Dorian and Aeolian dialects are more archaic than Classical Greek, no doubt because the Iranian Greeks were less pure Aryan in race. The loss of the digamma and the tendency to zetacism among the Ionians occurred, perhaps, as a result of mixing with the pre-Aryan population, from which the Dorians were withdrawn. Latin, however, was more faithful than Greek to the original consonant system. Thus, Latin retained the original guttural, which Greek often changes to p or t. Yes, Latin words quis and quinque correspond to Greek τις and πέντε or πέμπε. Latin retained the initial sibilant, which Greek changes to aspirate. Yes, Latin words sex, septem and socer in Greek become έξ, έπτά and έκυρός.

We find the same change qv in p in Welsh and Gaulish, but not in Irish or Latin. Yes, latin quatuor becomes in Irish cethir and pedwar in Welsh. The change also occurs in Oscan and Umbrian, where it says pan instead of quam and pis instead of quis. Latin also retains the old semivowel at(represented through j), which in Greek changes to h or in z. So we find jecur and jugum instead of ήπαρ and ζυγόν. So, despite the greater antiquity of Sanskrit literature, it would seem that some of the European languages ​​in their morphological structure, and even more so in their phonetic system, are just as archaic as the Asiatic languages.

In the general conclusion, the languages ​​that have changed the least are Lithuanian, the languages ​​that have changed the most are Teutonic. In almost every respect, the languages ​​of the short-headed peoples of Central Europe—Lithuanian, Slavic, Celtic, Umbrian, Latin, and Dorian Greek—are closer to the original Aryan type than is Teutonic, the language of the long-headed inhabitants of the shores of the Baltic Sea. Thus, it would seem that the Lithuanians have the greatest right to be representatives of the original Aryan race, since their language presents less phonetic losses resulting from the acquisition by various peoples of a language alien to them.