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

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 Jörg Rhiemeier
• Europic - obsolete theory of Jörg Rhiemeier
• Indo-Uralic
• Mitian
• Nostratic