Since the Iron Age of India, the native languages of the Indian subcontinent have been divided into various language families, of which Indo-Aryan and Dravidian are the most widely spoken. There are also many languages belonging to unrelated language families, such as Munda (from the Austroasiatic family) and Tibeto-Burman (from the Trans-Himalayan family), spoken by smaller groups.
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π Linguistic history of India in the context of Kurgan hypothesis
The Kurgan hypothesis (also known as the Kurgan theory, Kurgan model, or steppe theory) is the most widely accepted proposal to identify the Proto-Indo-European homeland from which the Indo-European languages spread out throughout Europe and parts of Asia. It postulates that the people of a Kurgan culture in the Pontic steppe north of the Black Sea were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). The term is derived from the Turkic word kurgan (ΠΊΡΡΠ³Π°ΜΠ½), meaning tumulus or burial mound.
The steppe theory was first formulated by Otto Schrader (1883) and V. Gordon Childe (1926), then systematized in the 1950s by Marija Gimbutas, who used the term to group various prehistoric cultures, including the Yamnaya (or Pit Grave) culture and its predecessors. In the 2000s, David Anthony instead used the core Yamnaya culture and its relationship with other cultures as a point of reference.