Pre Indo European languages

Terminology

Before World War II, all the unclassified languages of Europe and Near East were commonly referred to as Asianic languages; this term encompassed several languages that were later found to be Indo-European (e.g., Lydian), while others (Hurro-Urartian, Hattic, etc.) were classified as distinct language families. The term pre-Indo-European is not universally accepted, as some linguists maintain the idea of the relatively late arrival of their speakers to Europe; they prefer to speak about non-Indo-European languages. A new term, Paleoeuropean, was coined relatively recently. The latter term is not applicable to the languages that predated or coexisted with Indo-European outside Europe (e.g., in the areas of Iran or India).

Surviving languages

Surviving pre-Indo-European languages are held to include:

in South Asia, the Dravidian language family, Nihali, Kusunda, and Burushaski

in the Caucasus, the Kartvelian, Northeast Caucasus and Northwest Caucasus languages

in South West Europe, Basque

in northern Eurasia, the Uralic languages, although in Finland there is also evidence of an Indo-European substrate preceding Finno-Ugric

Languages which contributed a substrate to Indo-European languages

Examples of suggested or known substrate influences on specific Indo-European languages include:

Substrate to Anatolian: Hattic language

Substrate to Armenian: Hurro-Urartian languages

Substrate in Vedic Sanskrit, proposed sources for which include:

Harappan language (not attested in readable script; see Indus script)

Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (possible source of Sanskrit vocabulary, language not attested)

Vedda language (a Sinhalese-based creole containing pre-Sinhalese substrate lexicon)

Elamite language

Dravidian languages

Munda languages

Substrates to early (undifferentiated or partly differentiated) Indo-European in Western Europe:

Old European hydronymy (possibly Indo-European, as originally thought by Krahe)

Vasconic substratum hypothesis

Atlantic (Semitic) languages (rejected by mainstream linguists)

Pre-Greek substrate languages, which may have included:

Pelasgian language (may have been one or both of the languages below)

Minoan language (see also Linear A, Cretan hieroglyphs)

Eteocretan language (may have been a descendant of Minoan)

Eteocypriot language (see also Cypro-Minoan script)

Lemnian language (probably close to Etruscan)

Pre-Germanic: see Germanic substrate hypothesis

Pre-Celtic languages:

Insular Celtic:

Goidelic substrate hypothesis

Pictish language (since about 2000, generally classified as Celtic)

For the British Isles, see Celtic settlement of Great Britain and Ireland

Continental Celtic:

Paleohispanic languages

Iberian language

Tartessian language (classification as Celtic has been proposed)

Aquitanian language (often thought to be the direct ancestor of Basque)

Italic:

Etruscan language

Raetic language (probably close to Etruscan)

Camunic language (probably Raetic or Celtic)

Elymian language (probably Indo-European)

North Picene language

Paleo-Sardinian language (also called Paleosardinian, Protosardic, Nuraghic language)

Sicanian language

Sicel language (probably Indo-European)

Attested languages

Languages which are attested in inscriptions include:

Basque

Etruscan

Minoan

Aquitanian

Iberian

Urartian

Later Indo-European expansion

Languages replaced or engulfed by Indo-European in ancient times must be distinguished from languages replaced or engulfed by Indo-European languages in more recent times. In particular, the vast majority of the major languages spread by colonialism have been Indo-European, and this has in the last few centuries led to superficially similar linguistic islands being formed by, for example, indigenous languages of the Americas (now surrounded by English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French), as well as of several Uralic languages (now surrounded by Russian).