1. Why Is English Related to Other Languages?  Distribution of Indo-European Branches –Four most widely spoken branches 1. Germanic branch—Primarily North America and Western Europe 2. Indo-Iranian branch—Primarily South Asia 3. Balto-Slavic branch—Primarily Eastern Europe 4. Romance branch—Primarily Southwestern Europe and Latin America

3. Germanic Branch  West-Germanic is the group within the Germanic branch that English belongs to.  West-Germanic is further divided into sub- groups: High Germanic (basis for modern German) and Low Germanic (English, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, Frisian)  North Germanic—4 Scandinavian languages: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic

5. Indo-Iranian Branch of Indo- European  Includes more than 100 individual languages spoken by 1 billion people.  Branch can be divided into two groups, eastern (Indic) and western (Iranian).  Indic languages include Hindi (1/3 India)— spoken many different ways but written in Devangari  Urdu (Pakistan) is spoken like Hindi but written in the Arabic alphabet  Iranian—Farsi, Pashto (Afghanistan), and Kurdish—Arabic alphabet

6. Balto-Slavic Branch  Slavic was once a single language with the hearth in Asia. Several groups migrated to different areas of Eastern Europe—divided into East, West, and South Slavic groups and also Baltic.  East—mostly Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian  West—Polish, Czech, Slovak  South Slavic—spoken in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia  Bosnia and Croatians use the roman alphabet and Montenegrins and Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet  When the countries belonged to Yugoslavia, language was called Serbo-Croatian—recalls dominance of Croatians and Bosnians by Serbs—now Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian.

7. Romance Branch  What are the 5 most common romance languages?  What is the root? Latin vs. Vulgar Latin  Mountain ranges—intervening obstacles  Romansh (SW) Catalan (Andorra & Catalonia), Sardinian,  Ladin, Friullian (Italy), and Romansh are official dialects of Rhaeto-Romanic  Ladino—mixture of Spanish, Greek, Turkish and Hebrew—spoken in Israel

9. ENGLISH!!!!! It is very difficult to trace the origin and diffusion of entire language families, but specific languages or branches are much easier. English is a good illustration of the development and diffusion of languages in general. Most languages follow a similar pattern.

10. The origin of English  Celts arrived around 2,000 BC and spoke Celtic  Around 450 AD tribes arrived from mainland Europe, pushing Celts North and West 1. Angles- from southern Denmark 2. Jutes- from northern Denmark 3. Saxons- from northwestern Germany  Modern English is rooted in the languages spoken by these tribes, from present-day Germany and Denmark.

11. –Over time, others invaded England and their languages influenced the basic English.  Vikings from present-day Norway  Normans from present-day Normandy in France spoke French.

12. French in ENGLAND!!!  In 1066 the Normans invaded England and conquered it.  They established French as the official language for the next 300 years.  Nobles, royalty, clergy, judges and other educated people spoke French.  Most people did not know French so they continued to speak English.

14. And so, the languages mingled…  Mother  Sky  Horse  Man  Woman  Maternal  Celestial  Equestrian  Masculine  Feminine

16. Why Is English Related to Other Languages?  Origin and Diffusion of Language Families –English diffuses across the world.  English language migrated with the people of England when they established colonies over four centuries. –English is an official language in most former British colonies.  Diffusion to North America –First successful colony was Jamestown, VA, in 1607. –Defeat of France by England secured English as the dominant language in North America. –United States responsible for diffusing English to several places—e.g., Philippines.

17. Origin and Diffusion of Indo- European  Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian are all part of the same Indo-European family.  Linguists believe the languages to have descended from one common ancestral language—proto-European.

18. How do Linguists Study Historical Languages?  Backward reconstruction – tracking sound shifts and the hardening of consonants backward to reveal an “original” language. –Can deduce the vocabulary of an extinct language. –Can recreate ancient languages (deep reconstruction) –Can use common roots for various words to deduce what type of location the “original” language came from.

19. FOR EXAMPLE…  Looking at the physical attributes of the words themselves, one finds common roots in all Indo-European languages with words such as winter, snow, bee, oak, beech, bear, dear, and pheasant.  Words such as ocean, elephant, camel and rice cannot be traced back to a common Proto-Indo-European ancestor.  What does that say?

20. Historical Linkages among Languages  Indo-European language family  Proto-Indo-European language  Nostratic Language

21. Linguists and Anthropologists  Agree on the existence of a language  Disagree on when and where and on the processes and routes  One theory argues war and conquest  Another peaceful food sharing

22. Kurgan Theory  Marija Gimbutas  Steppes near the border of modern day Russia and Kazakhstan  Earliest evidence dates back to 4300BC  Nomadic herders migrating through Western Europe, eastward to Siberia and southeastward to Iran and South Asia  Used horses and conquered much of Europe and South Asia between 3500 and 2500 BC

24. Anatolian Hearth Theory  Colin Renfrew  First speakers lived 2,000 years before the Kurgans, in Eastern Anatolia (present day Turkey)  Argues that speakers grew their own food and so were peaceful and just grew in population