Indoeuropæiske

Indoeuropæiske is a Danish term referring to the Indo-European language family. This is a vast family of languages spoken by native speakers across much of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. The Indo-European language family is one of the largest and most widely distributed language families in the world. Its members are thought to have descended from a single prehistoric language, known as Proto-Indo-European.

The study of Indo-European languages, known as Indo-European linguistics, seeks to reconstruct the Proto-Indo-European language and to understand the historical development and relationships between its daughter languages. Major branches of the Indo-European family include Germanic, Italic, Celtic, Slavic, Baltic, Hellenic, Indo-Iranian, and Anatolian. Examples of well-known Indo-European languages include English, Spanish, Russian, Greek, Hindi, and Persian.

The existence of the Indo-European language family was first proposed in the late 18th century by Sir William Jones, who noticed similarities between Sanskrit, classical Greek, and Latin. Since then, extensive research has been conducted to identify and classify its many branches and to trace their historical connections. The precise geographical origin of Proto-Indo-European remains a subject of scholarly debate, with prominent theories pointing to the Pontic-Caspian steppe or Anatolia.