The Indo- European Language Family A large group of languages spoken over most of Europe and also in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Northern India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. They developed from a parent language probably spoken somewhere in eastern Europe or Western Asia around 5000 years ago.
An Example of the Evidence: Words for `is’ German: ist Russianyest Latin (ancient European language)est Ancient Greek esti Sanskrit (ancient Indian language)asti Can you guess what the original word probably was?
An Example of the Evidence: Words for `is’ German: ist Russianyest Latin (ancient European language)est Ancient Greek esti Sanskrit (ancient Indian language)asti Can you guess what the original word probably was? *esti
What the original language might have been like `Ner owiom r wihnam sebhi gwhermom Man sheep ‘s wool to-himself warm westrom kwerneuti neghi owiom wihna esti.’ clothing makes nor to-sheep wool is Tod kekluwos owis agrom ebhuget. That having-heard sheep to-plain fled
Branches of Indo-European in Asia HITTITE (ancient language once spoken in Turkey) TOCHARIAN (ancient language once spoken in Sinkiang ( 新疆 )) INDO-IRANIAN –PERSIAN and similar languages –INDO-ARYAN (languages of northern India and nearby countries)
Uriah the HITTITE ( 赫人烏利亞 ) was sent to die in battle by King David so that David could take his wife - Samuel II, 11 ( 撒母耳記下 )
Hittite Writing Method
Chinese Oracle Bone
Mummified body of a Tocharian speaker? 1500 B.C.?
A hymn to the god Ganesh from the Rigveda, written in Sanskrit, an ancient INDO-IRANIAN language
INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES [SANSKRIT] HINDI/URDU NEPALI Bengali Gujarati Marathi Sinhala
What’s your name (in Indo- Aryan) Sanskrit: Tava nama kim asti? Hindi/Urdu: Tumhara nam kya hai? Nepali: Timro nam ke ho? Gujarati:Tamarun nam shun che?
European Language Groups CELTIC: spoken in small areas of North- Western Europe SLAVIC: spoken in Eastern Europe GERMANIC: spoken in Northern Europe ROMANCE: spoken in Southern Europe
CELTIC WELSH [Cornish] Breton IRISH Gaelic [Manx]
SLAVIC Russian Ukranian Polish Czech Bulgarian SERBO-CROATIAN
GERMANIC GERMAN Dutch ENGLISH Danish Swedish Norwegian
COMPARING GERMANIC LANGUAGES English: The king slept in my house for two nights Dutch: De koning sliep in mijn huis voor twee nachten. German: Der König schlief in meinem Haus für zwei Nächte
ROMANCE [LATIN] SPANISH Portuguese ITALIAN FRENCH Romanian
We love our mother (in Romance) Latin: nostram matrem amamus Spanish: Amamos a nuestra madre Italian: Amiamo la nostra madre French: Nous aimons notre mère
How Latin may have sounded 2000 years ago ( Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris arms man also sing-I Troy’s who first from shores Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque venit Italy-to fate-by refugee Lavinian-also came litora multum ille et terris iactatus et alto coasts-to much he both land-on harassed and sea-at vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram. force-by gods’ cruel memorable Juno’s from anger