Language and Writing

Indo-European Languages Among the Indo-European languages, the Greek family became one of the most diverse in Europe, although it borrowed some non-Indo-European elements from neighbors like the Minoans (ca. 2600-1450 b.c.e.). Two other major languages contemporary with early Greek, the Thracian and Illyrian tongues spoken in the Balkans, are now extinct. North of the Balkans, the Slavic and Baltic language groups developed. The early form of Slavic remained intact for a long period and did not begin to diverge into its modern branches until about c.e. 400.