a common ancestor called Proto-Indo-European, the kinship between the subfamilies or branches (large groups of more closely related languages within the language family), that descend from other more recent proto-languages, is not the same because there are subfamilies that are closer or further, and they did not split-off at the same time, the affinity or kinship of Indo-European subfamilies or branches between themselves is still an unresolved and controversial issue and being investigated. However, there is some consensus that Anatolian was the first group of Indo-European (branch) to split-off from all the others and Tocharian was the second in which that happened. Using a mathematical analysis borrowed from evolutionary biology, Donald Ringe and Tandy Warnow propose the following tree of Indo-European branches: Proto-Indo-European (PIE) Pre-Anatolian (before 3500 BC) Pre-Tocharian Pre-Italic and Pre-Celtic (before 2500 BC) Pre-Armenian and Pre-Greek (after 2500 BC) Proto-Indo-Iranian (2000 BC) Pre-Germanic and Pre-Balto-Slavic; proto-Germanic (500 BC) David W. Anthony, following the methodology of Donald Ringe and Tandy Warnow, proposes the following sequence: Proto-Indo-European (PIE) Pre-Anatolian (4200 BC) Pre-Tocharian (3700 BC) Pre-Germanic (3300 BC) Pre-Italic and Pre-Celtic (3000 BC) Pre-Armenian (2800 BC) Pre-Balto-Slavic (2800 BC) Pre-Greek (2500 BC) Proto-Indo-Iranian (2200 BC); split between Old Iranian and Old Indic 1800 BC List of Indo-European protolanguages The protolanguages that developed into the Indo-European languages This is not a list of just Proto-Indo-European, but it also contains the protolanguages of Indo-European subfamilies Pre-Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) (Proper) Early / Archaic PIE Proto-Anatolian Proto-Luwian / Proto-Luwic Proto-Lydian Proto-Palaic Proto-Hittite Middle PIE Proto-Tocharian Late PIE Proto-Italic Proto-Latino-Faliscan Proto-Osco-Umbrian Proto-Celtic Proto-Continental-Celtic Proto-Eastern-Celtic Proto-Gaulish Proto-Celtiberian Proto-Gallaecian Proto-Insular-Celtic Proto-Brittonic Proto-Goidelic Proto-Armenian Proto-Greek Proto-Albanian Proto-Germanic Proto-Northwest-Germanic Proto-Norse (Proto-North-Germanic) Proto-West-Germanic Proto-Elbe Germanic Proto-Weser-Rhine Germanic Proto-North Sea Germanic Proto-East-Germanic Proto-Balto-Slavic Proto-Baltic Proto-Western-Baltic Proto-Eastern-Baltic Proto-Slavic Proto-East-Slavic Proto-Ruthenian-Russian (Proto-Southwest-Northeast East Slavic) Proto-Ruthenian Proto-Russian Proto-Novgorodian-Pskovian (Proto-Northwest East Slavic) Proto-West-South Slavic Proto-West-Slavic Proto-Lechtic Proto-Sorbian (Proto-Elbe-Serbian) Proto-Czech-Slovak Proto-South-Slavic Proto-Western South Slavic Proto-Slovene Proto-Shtokavian (Proto-Serbo-Croatian) Proto-Eastern South Slavic Old-Slavonic (Proto-Slavic Bulgarian-Slavic Macedonian) Proto-Indo-Iranian Proto-Iranian Proto-Eastern-Iranian Proto-Northeast-Iranian (North Eastern Iranian) Proto-Scythian Proto-Southeast-Iranian (South Eastern Iranian) Proto-Sogdo-Bactrian Proto-Western-Iranian Proto-Northwest-Iranian (North Western Iranian) Proto-Southwest-Iranian (South Western Iranian) Proto-Nuristani Proto-Indo-Aryan Sanskrit Prakrit Proto-Shauraseni Proto-Sindhi Proto-Punjabi Proto-Western-Hindi Proto-Magadhi Proto-Bihari Proto-Bengali-Assamese Proto-Odia Proto-Maharashtri Proto-Marathi-Konkani Proto-Sinhalese-Maldivian The list below follows Donald Ringe and Tandy Warnow classification tree for Indo-European branches. Anatolian languages (all extinct) Proto-Anatolian Hittite (Nesitic/Central) Hittite (Nesite) (𒉈𒅆𒇷 – Nesili) Cappadocian? (also known as Leucosyrian, was spoken in Cappadocia and West Pontus) Luwic (Southern) Luwian Aštanuwa Luwian / Ištanuwa Luwian