| Group | Indic (with Hindi, Marathi etc.), Old Indic (with Vedic and Sanskrit) |
| Geography & History | The question of the Indo-European homeland remains under discussion, and this does not allow to state where the Indo-Aryan began their migrations from. The latest research proves there are traces of Indic presence in the North Caucasus region and north to the Black Sea from the 1st millennium BC and maybe later. They can be identified by some toponymyc signs and tribal names from the Greek and Byzantine sources. But while this Black Sea Aryan is not witnessed by any documents found, its relative, another Indic dialect, left some written traces in the Near East, in the archives of Mitanni Kingdom. The Indo-Aryan words, personal names and terms are included in the documents and seals from the 17th to the 14th century. After Mitanni Kingdom was destroyed by Assyria, the Indic element must have been assimilated by the Semitic languages. |
| Phonetics | Linguists stated that Mitanni Aryan was archaic enough to preserve all the diphthongs which Vedic transformed into simple vowels (Mit. aika- vs. Vedic eka- 'one'); it was a "satem" language, e.g. the Proto-Indo-European *g' became s in it. Some phonetic features make it similar to the Iranian languages. Sometimes the phonetic transcription is difficult because of the cuneiform syllabic specifics. |
| Morphology | Practically no grammar forms can be identified from the Mitanni words: their are mainly numerals, names or nouns. |
| Lexicon | Those words (about 30) which are definitely Aryan find theuir direct cognates in other Old Indic languages. The Indic words are mainly met in the texts devoted to horseback riding: obviously, Indic people were famous for horse-breeding and horseback riding. |
| Writing | Cuneiform |
| Close Contacts | Urartian, Hurrian, Semitic languages |
| Sample | ila_ni Mi-it-ra as'-s'i-il ila_ni U-ru wa.na-as's'i-el (in
another text A.ru-na-as'.s'i-il) in.dar (other text: In-da.ra)
ila_ni na-s'a-at-ti-ya-an-na
What can be definitely Indic here is a number of deities' names: Mitra, Varuna, Indra |
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