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Indo-European Language or Not? Quiz
Scholars in several different countries began noticing the similarities between languages spoken in places as far apart as India, Iran, and Europe as early as the 16h Century. English scientist Thomas first used the phrase "Indo-European" in 1813.
A collection quiz
by Reamar42.
Estimated time: 3 mins.
Last 3 plays: Morganw2019 (5/11), Guest 104 (11/11), reeshy (11/11).
Pick out the languages that are classified as belonging to the Indo-European language family from those that are not.
There are 11 correct entries. Get 3 incorrect and the game ends.
Persian Bengali Maltese Greek French German SpanishFinnish Russian Italian Basque Turkish Albanian Hungarian HindiEnglish
Left click to select the correct answers. Right click if using a keyboard to cross out things you know are incorrect to help you narrow things down.
The English and German languages are part of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family, originating in Northern Europe and Scandinavia.
French, Italian, and Spanish all descend from Latin, and are part of the Italic branch. They are also called Romance languages, as they are directly descended from Vulgar Latin, spoken in the Roman Empire.
The Persian, Bengali, and Hindi languages are all parts of the Indo-Iranic branch, which are spoken primarily in Iran and the Indian subcontinent.
Russian is part of the Balto-Slavic branch, although this classification is somewhat controversial. Some scholars contend that the similarities between the Baltic and Slavic languages are due to proximity of the native speakers and not descent from the same original tongue.
The Albanian language is a separate branch of Indo-European, and is not related to any other modern language. It descends from extinct Balkan languages that were wiped out by conquest and migration.
Greek is the only modern language that remains from several that were once spoken in the Mediterranean area. It is also a separate branch of Indo-European, not related to any other tongue.
Finnish and Hungarian are both part of the Finno-Ugric language group and are not related to Indo-European. It has been suggested that this family of languages originated in the northern Ural Mountains, but scholars are not in complete agreement on this point.
The Turkish language originated in Central and Eastern Asia, and was spread westward to the modern country of Turkey and surrounding regions by migration and conquest. Turkic is classified as its own language family and is unrelated to Indo-European.
The Basque language is considered an isolate, as it is unrelated to any other language on Earth. It is speculated that the Basque people are indigenous to the Basque country, and have been speaking the same language since before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans.
Maltese is a Semitic language, based on Arabic. Maltese has been modified from long years of contact with Indo-European languages such as Italian and Spanish, as the island has been conquered many times by different cultures.
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor stedman before going online.
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