Ancient Languages of Ancient India and Pakistan

Indo-European --> Indo-Iranian --> Indo-Aryan (Indic)

Because of the negative connotation of the term Aryan, Indic often replaces Indo-Aryan, so you might see Indic listed as a branch of the Indo-Iranian language family.

There are multiple Indo-Aryan or Indic languages. The oldest Indo-Aryan or Indic languages are

• Sanskrit (a literary language),
• Prakrit (a vernacular),
• Pali (like Prakrit but used for writing Buddhist texts), and
• Apabhramsa (ancestor of most modern Indo-Aryan/Indic languages).

Source: Indo-Iranian Family, by Vijay John and Jonathan Slocum

Hypothetical Indo-Iranian Language Tree

Indo-Iranian -->

1. Vedic (Indic) -->
   • Sanskrit -->
     • Hindustani
   • Prakit -->
     • Marathi,
     • Bengali,
     • Romany
2. Old Iranian -->
   • Middle Iranian -->
     • Persian,
     • Kurdish,
     • Afghan,
     • Ossetic

Source: "Archaeology and Language The Indo-Iranians," by C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky; Current Anthropology 2002, pp. 63-88.

• sanskrit
• indo-aryan
• ancient languages
• indo-european
• hindustani