Indo-European Roots Bridget Germain

Overview Comparative Method Example of Reconstruction Some interesting roots

The Comparative Method Proto-Indo-European Sanskrit

The Comparative Method “The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either…[but] no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.” - Sir William Jones

The Comparative Method Need to ignore: Borrowing Onomatopoeia “baby talk” One Fact: certain languages are so similar that these similarities cannot be attributed to chance One Hypothesis: these languages must be descended from a common original

Reconstruction Several Indo-European languages have a similar word for “daughter-in-law” Sanskrit [snu∫āá] OE [snoru] Old Church Slavonic [snūkha] (Russian [snokhá]) Latin [nurus] Greek [nuós] Armenian [nu]

Reconstruction Step 1 - Prefix Sanskrit, Germanic (OE) and Slavic agree with an Indo-European word starting with *sn- Indo-European ‘s-’ was lost before ‘n’ in other Latin, Greek and Armenian words Thus, they all go back to a word beginning with *sn-

Reconstruction Step 2 - First Vowel Sanskrit, Latin, Greek and Armenian agree that the first vowel is [u] Slavic [ū] corresponds to Sanskrit [u] Germanic [o] (OE snoru) has been changed from earlier [u] So, the Proto-Indo-European word started with *snu.

Reconstruction Step 3 - Next Consonant Sanskrit [s] always changes to [∫] after [u] Slavic [s] changes to [kh] after [u] In Latin and sometimes in Germanic languages, old [s] between vowels changes to [r] (Latin nurus and OE snoru) Greek and Armenian [s] between vowels disappeared entirely Based on all these assumptions, it can then be assumed that the next vowel in the original word is [s], thus *snus-.

Reconstruction Step 4 - Ending Sanskrit, OE, Slavic all presuppose earlier [-ā] (feminine ending) Latin, Greek and Armenian presuppose [-os], which is still feminine even though most nouns ending in [-os] were masculine Since these endings were abnormal, they must be inherited. Suggests the original form is *snusos, even though normal feminine ending was [-ā], because it implies that Sanskrit, OE and Slavic all replaced the unconventional [-os] with conventional [-ā].

Reconstruction Step 5 - Accent Sanskrit [snu∫āá], Greek [nuós], and Slavic [snokhá] all place an accent on the final syllable Germanic: old [s] changes to [r] only when the accented syllable came after the [s] Final reconstructed word: *snusós

Some Interesting Roots Leuk- Originally means ‘light, brightness’ Derivatives include ‘light,’ ‘illuminate,’ ‘lunatic,’ ‘lucid,’ and ‘lynx’ Becomes ‘leukos’ (  -  ) in Greek, meaning ‘clear, white’ Combined with  ‘blood’ to form “leukemia,” which is caused by abnormal accumulation of white blood cells

Some Interesting Roots Sleubh- Originally means ‘to slide, slip’ Irish bhf  ‘v’ sound  English ‘sleeve’ OE slēf, slīf, slīef ‘sleeve’ (into which the arm slips)

Some Interesting Roots Nomen-, Nomin- From Latin, originally means ‘name, reputation’ Derivatives include ‘nominal,’ ‘denominate,’ ‘misnomer,’ ‘nomenclature’ Also Greek onoma, onuma ‘name’ Derivatives include ‘anonymous,’ ‘metonymy,’ ‘pseudonym,’ ‘synonymous’

The End