View source for Macro-Indo-European

'''Macro-Indo-European''' is a term sometimes used for a hypothetical [[language family]] consisting of [[Indo-European]] and various unknown extinct languages (usually called ''Para-Indo-European'') presumed to be related to it.  It is not common usage to apply the term to a proposed family consisting of Indo-European and one or more ''known'' languages. Rather, binary comparisons involving Indo-European and one other family are usually named by prefixing "Indo-" to the name of the other entity, such as [[Indo-Uralic]], [[Indo-Semitic]] or [[Indo-Tyrrhenian]]. Larger groups, involving more than one known non-Indo-European group, are usually named otherwise, such as [[Nostratic]], [[Eurasiatic]] or [[Mitian]].

==Jörg Rhiemeier's concept of Macro-Indo-European==

[[User:WeepingElf|Jörg Rhiemeier]] speculates that the known Indo-European languages may have had unknown relatives, such as the [[Aquan languages]] which he postulates on the basis of the [[Old European hydronymy]]. The Macro-Indo-European family would thus consist of Indo-European proper, Aquan and perhaps further languages.  He also coined the terms ''Micro-Indo-European'' for the non-Anatolian IE languages and ''Meso-Indo-European'' for the group consisting of Micro-Indo-European and Anatolian (and perhaps unknown Para-Anatolian languages). In this model, Macro-Indo-European corresponds to the first, Meso-Indo-European to the second, and Micro-Indo-European to the third Kurgan migration.

The resulting family tree looks like this:

* Macro-Indo-European
:* Meso-Indo-European
::* Micro-Indo-European
:::* ''all known non-Anatolien IE languages''
::* Anatolian
::* hypothetical para-Anatolian languages
:* Aquan
:* possible further unknown languages

Rhiemeier explores the unknown languages in this scheme in his conlangs (see [[Hesperic]]). 

==See also==

* [[Aquan languages]] - current theory of [[User:WeepingElf|Jörg Rhiemeier]]
:* [[Hesperic]] - Jörg Rhiemeier's conlang family based thereon
* [[Europic]] - obsolete theory of [[User:WeepingElf|Jörg Rhiemeier]]
* [[Indo-Uralic]]
* [[Mitian]]
* [[Nostratic]]

[[Category:Paleo-European languages]]
[[Category:Historical linguistics]]