Characteristics of Indo-European:
Phonology:
* Vowel system: A system of 5 to 7 vowels (a, e, i, o, u, sometimes long and short)
* Consonant system: A relatively complex system with stops, fricatives, nasals, liquids, and semivowels.
* Stress accent: Word stress was probably important, with a tendency for stress to fall on the first syllable.
Morphology:
* Highly inflected: Words changed form depending on their grammatical function (e.g., case, number, gender).
* Complex system of verb conjugation: Verbs had many different forms to express tense, mood, voice, person, and number.
* Extensive use of prefixes and suffixes: These were used to create new words and modify existing ones.
* Nouns categorized into classes: Nouns belonged to different declensions, with varying patterns of inflection.
Syntax:
* Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order: This is the basic sentence structure, though there were some exceptions.
* Use of prepositions: Words like "on," "in," and "with" were used to indicate relationships between elements in a sentence.
* Emphasis on agreement: Adjectives and pronouns had to agree with the noun they modified in gender, number, and case.
Other Features:
* Common vocabulary: Indo-European languages shared a large number of basic words for everyday objects, concepts, and family relationships.
* Development of a complex system of mythology and religion: This shared heritage is evident in the similarities between Greek, Roman, Norse, and Hindu mythologies.
* Spread across a vast geographical area: Indo-European languages evolved in different parts of the world, leading to variations in their phonological, grammatical, and lexical features.
Some key characteristics:
* Proto-Indo-European (PIE): The reconstructed ancestor of all Indo-European languages.
* Centum-Satem Isogloss: A key linguistic distinction that divides Indo-European languages into two groups based on how they treated certain sounds.
* Indo-European family tree: A system used to classify the various Indo-European languages and their relationships.
Note: These are some of the main characteristics, and there are many more complexities and variations within the vast Indo-European language family.
Please let me know if you have any further questions about specific aspects of Indo-European languages!