Extinct Indo-European Languages Quiz

Answer: Hittite

Hittite is one of the earliest extinct Indo-European languages to be found, as the Hittite Empire is mentioned in the written texts of other contemporary states that had dealings with them. Hittite became extinct after the fall of the Hittite Empire in approximately 1200 BCE.

Answer: Western China

Tocharian was spoken by a now extinct people who lived in the Tarim Basin region of western China, now known as Xinjiang. The Tocharians existed as a distinct people from the first to the ninth centuries CE, when they intermarried with the Uyghur tribes who began migrating to the area in the 8th century CE.

Answer: Gaulish

Gaulish was a a Celtic language spoken in the area known as Gaul, which was conquered by the Romans by 52 BCE. As the area was Romanized, the Gaulish language was spoken mostly in the rural areas. Gaulish died out as a distinct tongue by 600 CE.

Answer: Old Prussian

Old Prussian was spoken by the Baltic people living in Prussia, a region along the southern and western shores of the Baltic Sea until they were conquered by the German Teutonic Knights by 1275 CE. The language continued to be spoken by the descendants of the original inhabitants in the rural areas until the early 18th century.

In the late 1980s, an effort was begun to revive the language, and there are books and musical works written in it today.

Answer: Sicily

Sicily's native language was called Siculian, after the Sicel tribe, who arrived from mainland Italy in about 1200 BCE. The language went extinct by the 4th century BCE, after successive waves of colonization of the island and the assimilation of the inhabitants.

Answer: Gothic

The Germanic tribe known as the Goths was thought to have originated in southern Sweden and eventually migrated to the Black Sea region by 200 CE. The two main groups, known as the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths, were instrumental in the fall of the Roman Empire, controlling Spain and most of Italy by 500 CE.

The Gothic language began to decline after the Frankish invasions beginning around 400 CE, and was extinct by the 10th century CE.

Answer: Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit can be traced back to at least 1500 BCE, when it was the common tongue of the Indo-Aryans who were migrating into what is now northern India. Sanskrit gradually fell out of everyday use around 1350 CE, but remains the language of Hindu religious texts, much as Latin is still used in Roman Catholicism.

Answer: Pictish

The Picts were a Celtic tribe that were the original inhabitants of Scotland. The Gaels from Ireland began migrating to Scotland in the 4th century CE. By a combination of conflict and assimilation, the Picts were absorbed into the Scottish nation and Pictish was extinct by around 1100 CE.

Answer: Burgundian

The Burgundians were a Germanic tribe who began migrating into Roman Gaul in the 4th century CE. Burgundy was a county, a dukedom, and a kingdom at various times in its history, but was absorbed into France by conquest and dynastic marriage by the 14th century.

The Burgundian language went extinct even earlier, in the 6th century CE, as the people converted to Catholicism, and French became the everyday language of the people.

Answer: Macedonian

Macedonian, spoken in the kingdom of the same name lying to the north of the Greek city-states, began to be replaced by Greek in the third century BCE when the upper classes of Macedonian society began speaking Greek. The language survived until after the Roman conquest of 168 BCE, when it was replaced by Greek.