The New Student's Reference Work/Indo–European

In'do–Europe'an or Ar'yan is the name usually applied to the races and languages of Europe, with a few exceptions, and to the southwestern part of Asia. There are seven principal divisions—the Germanic or Teutonic, the Slavic, Celtic, Italic, Greek, Persian and Sanskrit or Indian. The Germanic branch includes Swedish, Norse, Dutch, Danish, German and English; Irish is a Celtic language; Latin, French, Spanish and Italian are Italic; and Russian is Slavic. The study and comparison of languages prove that all these languages had the same origin and, therefore, that the races originally were the same. The oldest literature in these languages is in the Sanskrit language, and is found in the sacred books of the Hindus. See Science of Language by Max Müller and Language and the Study of Language by Whitney.