1. Why is English related to other languages?
Chapter 5: language Key issue 2

2. Language Terms Language Family Language Branch Language Group
Collection of languages with common ancestral language from before recorded history
Ex. Indo-European
Language Branch
Collection of languages with common ancestral language from several thousand years ago
Ex. Germanic
Language Group
Collection of languages within a branch (above) with common, relatively new origin & few differences in vocabulary and grammar
Ex. West Germanic: Afrikaans, German, English, Dutch

3. Branches of English

4. Indo-iranian Branch

5. Origin & diffusion of indo-European languages
Proto-Indo-European (THE beginning language)
Cannot be proven
Nomadic Warrior Thesis (Gimbutas)
Kurgans – living in steppes between Russia & Kazakhstan
Earliest evidence from 4300 BC
Domesticated horses: conquered much of Europe & S. Asia
Sedentary Farmer Thesis (Renfrew)
Proto-Indo-European at least 2000 years before Kurgans
Anatolia (present-day Turkey) westward through Europe
Migration and agriculture spread the language instead of conquest