SANSKRIT AND INDO-EUROPEAN 9 Fragmentary records of other Indo-European languages have been preserved from the Italian and Balkan peninsulas, and, resulting from a later movement of peoples, and separate from the above Anatolian group, in Western Asia Minor. In Italy Oscan and Umbrian are known from a fair number of inscrip- tions, and together with Latin they are classed as the Italic group. The language of the Siculi in Sicily is also considered to belong with Italic. In the south-east corner of Italy, Messapian is held to be a later introduction from across the Adriatic, possibly related to Illyrian. Venetic in North East Italy is classed as a separate Indo-European language, though showing some signs of relationship with Italic. In the Balkan peninsula the Illyrian language is known only from proper names, and there is an unsettled debate as to whether or not it is the ancestor of Albanian, The information of Thracian, the other main Balkan language in ancient times is equally scanty, and its position remains obscure. In Asia Minor fresh invasions from the Balkans brought to an end the Hittite empire (c. 1200 b.c.) and introduced new Indo-European languages into the area. Of these Phrygian is scantily preserved in inscriptions. The languages of the Indo-European family have become more widely diffused over the world than those of any other linguistic family. They also form the majority of the cultivated languages of mankind. It is not surprising therefore that the question of the original home of Indo-European has been the subject of much speculation. In the early days it was usually held that this lay in Central Asia, and that from there successive waves of emigration had carried the various members of the family to Europe. This was mainly due to the exaggerated importance attached to Sanskrit and to confusion between the primitive Aryans of whom we have spoken with the much earlier Indo-Europeans. It is as we have seen reasonably cer- tain that it was from Central Asia, more specifically the Oxus valley, that the Indians and Iranians set out to occupy their respective domains. But there is not the slightest trace of evidence or probability that the ancestors^of the Germans, Celts, Greeks and other European members of the family were ever near this area. Consequently it is now usually held that the original home lay somewhere in Europe. The main argu- ment for this is the simple but effective one that it is in Europe that the greatest number of Indo-European languages, and the
