Indo-European linguistics

Indo-European linguistics compares languages in the Indo-European family to reconstruct their shared history, sound changes, grammar, and vocabulary.

Comparative method: A method for reconstructing ancestral languages by comparing systematic correspondences among related languages. It turns recurring similarities across Indo-European languages into evidence of common ancestry.
Historical linguistics: The study of how languages change and how their histories can be reconstructed. Indo-European linguistics is a major comparative tradition within this broader field.
Indo-European migrations: Proposed movements of Indo-European-speaking populations that spread languages across Europe and parts of Asia. Migration hypotheses connect linguistic branching with the family's geographic expansion.
Hittite language: An extinct Anatolian language recorded in cuneiform documents from the second millennium BCE. Hittite evidence reshaped reconstruction, especially through features associated with laryngeal theory.
Proto-Indo-European: The reconstructed ancestor of the Indo-European language family, inferred through comparative linguistic evidence. It is the principal ancestral language reconstructed by Indo-European comparison.
Language family: A group of languages descended from a common ancestral language. The Indo-European family is the genealogical unit that the field investigates.
Kurgan hypothesis: A hypothesis locating the Proto-Indo-European homeland in the Pontic-Caspian steppe and linking its spread to steppe pastoralists. It is a leading homeland model, often contrasted with Anatolian proposals.
Sanskrit: An ancient Indo-Aryan language preserved in extensive religious, literary, and grammatical traditions. Its early records and detailed grammar made it a pivotal source for Indo-European comparison.
Sound law: A regular pattern of sound change affecting a language or group of related languages. Regular sound changes explain why inherited words differ predictably across branches.
Cognate: A word in one language related by descent to a word in another language from a shared ancestor. Cognates provide comparative data, but resemblance alone does not establish cognacy.

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