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The Indo-European Family of LanguagesBased on A History of English language by Albert C.Baugh2.Dr.R.Venkataraman

Approximate distribution of Indo-European languages around the world.Genealogical (record of ancestry)Classification of a language

What is a language family ?Family:Languages that share common characteristics. Easily understand that such languages belong to one family.Ultimately descended from a common parent.Eight families of world languages:1.Sino-Tibetan2.Indo-European3. Dravidian4. Afro-AsiaticNiger-Congo6. Malaya-Polynesian7. Nishadha languages8.Khosian dialects No significant historical evidence to suggest English descended from Indo-European family.Similarity in sounds, words

Language familiessimilar featuresLexicon(vocabulary)Syntax(Grammar)Phonology(sound)Morphology(word structure)containofEnglish is part of Indo-European language family.Contains 140 languages11 sub-groupsWhy Indo-European?Sanskrit in the Indian contextOther European languages bear similarities in vocabulary and inflections.Home of Indo-European:3 areas:Scandinavian and northern part of GermanyThe Hungarian plainThe steppe region in the southern part of Ukraine and the north of Black SeaOrigin speculation

The Indo-Europeans (Aryans) invaded the Indian sub-continentSegment of I.E. population in northern part of India/PakistanAround 2000 B.COriginal home of Aryans was India, they left around 8000 B.C. to return later.

IndianSanskrit ---- literary languagePrakrit ----- accounting for dialectsEarliest Sanskrit division VedicPrevailed between: 2000 B.C 1500 B.CLanguage of four Vedas (hymns of Brahman)I 4th Century B.C : evolution of strong grammatical systemPanini gave fixed literary form aided in literary status(classical Sanskrit)6th Century: Pali Prakriti dialect rose to literary status language of BuddhismSanskrit mother of all north Indian languages

Classical Sanskrit : Mahabharata, and the RamayanaDrama, lyric and didactic poetryScientific and philosophical works similar position as Latin had in EuropeA large number of dialects in colloquial use Other descendent languages now spoken in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan : Urdu(closely related to Hindi, derived from Hindustani, colloquial form of speech for 4 centuries used widely for intercommunication throughout northern India)Main difference in Urdu and Hindi:considerable mixture of Persian and ArabicWritten in Perso-Arabic script instead of Sanskrit character Other: Bengali, Punjabi, Marathiand IndiaLanguage of gypsies: Romany a dilect of northwestern India5th century: carried through Persia and into ArmeniaFrom there to Europe and even into America wherever nomads have wanderedIranian:Iran, formally known as old Persian regionPrimitive Indo-European population settled down in this region.Two languages evolved: Old Persian and ZendNomadic north Indian population mixed up with the Persians Consequently an amalgamation of linguistic features.Travelled to parts of central China, southern parts of Russian region.Contact with people today called Latvians features of Sanskrit entered LetticPushtu, Balochi, Kurdish, and host of dialects Armenian:Initially thought to be part of Iranian group independent language of I.EOld Armenian: language of Christian scriptural matterliterary ArmenianKnown to otside world from 5th century onwardsRegion : south of Caucasus Mountains and eastern end of Black Sea.Similarities with Iranian No grammatical gender like south Caucasus languages Contacts with Greek and Turkish accounts for its mixed character.AlbanianLanguage of ancient Illyria.Identity known from 17th centuryGeographical are: eastern coast of Adriatic sea , northwest of GreeceNo separate identity Mixed character with Latin, Turkish, Greek, and SloveneIndependent , interesting for philologistsSouthern variation known as Gheg and the Northern variation:Tosk Balto-Slavic:Baltic languages: Prussian( extinct) Lettic, LithuanianInterrelatedness between Lettic and SanskritNorth Indian Persian mixture of population with strong Sanskrit characteristics , settled down in Latvian region thus, strong Sanskrit characteristic.Two groups of Slavic languages:The southeastern: Russian, Bulgarian, IllyrianThe the western : Czech, or Bohemian, Polish, Serbian or WendThese languages preserve the archiac Teutonic elements.Hellenic:Contains number of dialects: Doric, Ionic, Attic, the north Greek of Phocis, Aetolia, Epirus, Aeolic, Elean, Arcadian,Cyprian, Pamphylian.Hellinic population entered the Aegean region,containg diverse tribes f diverse dialects.These populations were absorbed by the Hellenes.Attic of Athens became politically, and commercially dominant.Out of Attic descended: common Greek (Demotic Greek)Classical Greek/ pure Greek--- the language of literature and intellectuals. Italic:Center in ItalyRome and language of Rome:LatinBut Latin only one of manyDiverse culture: geographical situation, agreeable climate of peninsula, led to settlements.Little known about early Neolithic inhabitants.Largely been absorbed or replaced before the middle of the 1st millennium B.C.The Italic peoples began their descent into theItalian peninsulaaround the 2nd millenium B.C. Two subgroups developed fromProto-Italic--SabellicandLatino-Faliscan, both attested by 7th century B.C. inscriptions (the former inUmbrian, the latter inFaliscan).

Number of languages spoken in different districts . In West: Tiber north, Etruscan, (powerful and aggressive people) In Northwestern Italy: Ligurian(little known now Northeast: VeneticExtreme Southeast : MessapianSouthern Italy and Sicily : Greek, of numerous colonies as wellAll except Etruscan were Indo-EuropeanChief of these languages: Latin,the language of Latium, and its principal city:RomeClosely related to Latin: Umbrian(northeast of Latium),Oscan)Samites) and most of the southern peninsulaAll of these languages were driven out by Latin as political influence of Rome became dominant throughout Italy. Extended to colonized Spain and Gaul, west district of Black sea, northern Africa, islands of the Mediterranean, even Britain. the growing strength of the Latin speakers, culminating in theRoman Empire, resulted in most competing tongues inItaly(and many elsewhere, for example Continental Celtic) being extinguished.With the collapse of the Empire, the provincialVulgarLatin dialects rather thanClassical Latinsurvived, and in time developed into the Romance languages Various languages which represent the survival of Latin in different parts of Rome are known as Romance languages. Or Romantic languages.Some of them have spreadThe most expensive languages : French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. French: primarily language of northern France.Middle ages: number of dialects: Norman, Picard, Burgundian and Ile-de-FranceCapetians king of France, the rise of Paris as national capitolDialect of Paris won recognition as official and, literary language

13th century: Paris standard French . Southern half language difered from that of North.Language of north: langue doil ( French)South: langue d oc(Provencal)In 12th and 13th century Provencal was a medium of literature ,lyrics, but then yielded to superior political and social prestige of French.19th century efforts: to revive Provencal, Irish, Norwegian failedMerely a peasant speechof South FranceIberian Peninsula: Spanish and Portugese Close proximityDifference in vocabulary and inflection Spaniard can easily read Portugese

Italian:longest continuous history in its original location of any of the Romance languages. Still spoken in founding city : RomeLanguage of : Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio vernacular language, Renaissance language Romanian: least important of six principal languagesNortheastern: Catalan (affinity to Provencal)Northwestern Spain: Galician (affinity to Portugese)Rhaeto-Romantic.. Nonliterary dialect southeastern Switzerland Roamnce languages not derived from Classical Latin of Cicero and VirgilClassical Latin: literary language, artificial grammarVulgar Latin( vulgus:common people)Simpler in inflection and syntax, divergent in vocabulary examples in book2000-1000: Proto-Italic1000-500: Sabellic; Latino-Faliscan500-1BC: Oscan; Umbrian; Faliscan; Latin1-500AD: Classical Latin500- 1000 : Vulgar1000- 1500: Old Italian, Old French, old Provencial, Old Spanish,old Portugese1500-2000 : Romanian, Italian, French, Provencal,Spanish,Portugese

Celtic:Most extensive groupBeginning of Christian era: Celts in Gaul and Spain, Great britain, western Germany, and northern Italy greater part of western Europe.Greece, Asia MinorSurprising phenomenon: steady retreat of Celtic before advancing Italic and Germanic tonguesToday: Celtic tongues in remorter corners of France and the British Isles.Celts in Gaul by Caesar Gallic

Proto-Celticspeakers moved generally west from the PIE(Proto-Indo-European) homeland, probably alongside groups from the Italic branch, spreading across southernEuropeinto centralTurkey, northernItaly,France,Spain, and eventually theBritish Isles. As centuries passed, their language evolved into one group of languages labelledContinental(spoken by "Gauls" across southernEuropeand mentioned by Julius Caesar among others), and another labelledInsular(spoken in theBritish Isles).Continental Celts later adoptedLatin, orGreekin the case of those inTurkey, and theContinental Celticlanguages, attested from the 6th century B.C., were lost. Insular Celtic split into aGoidelicsubgroup that developed inIreland, and aBrythonicsubgroup that developed inEngland & Wales. Later in history, Goidelic Celts migrated toScotland; also later in history, Brythonic Celts under pressure from the Anglo-Saxons returned to the Continent and settled in Brittany, on the western point ofFrance.2000-1000:Proto-Celtic1000-500:Continental;Insular500_1BC:Celtiberian,Gaulish,Lepontic,Noric,Galatian,Goidelic,Brythonic1-500AD: Ogham Irish500-1000:Old Irish,Old Welsh,Old Cornish,Old Breton1000-1500:Middle Irish,Middle Welsh,Middle Cornish,Middle Breton

1500-2000:Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, Manx,Welsh,Cornish,Breton

Germanic:Germanic or Proto-GermanicAntedates earliest written records of the familyThree groups: East Germanic, North Germanic, and West GermanicEast GermanicGothic3rd century: Goths spread from Vistula to the shore of Black Sea4th century: Christianised by a missionary named Ulfilas(311-383) father Goth and mother Runic inscriptions in Scandinavia earliest records

Gothic survived longest in CrimeaGothicis the only attested language from the east, with a 4th century translation of the Bible, althoughVandalicis known to have been spoken by Vandals who migrated across the fadingRoman Empirethrough Spain to north AfricaMost of the Goths blended into the Empire and their language was replaced by local Latin dialects, but some migrated east intoCrimea, where their language survived to the 16th century.North Germanic:Scandinavia and DenmarkRunic inscription :3rd centuryOld Norse11th century dialectic differences among languages2 groups:Eastern group: Swedish and DanishWestern group: Norwegian and Icelandic14thcentury : Norwegian ceased to be literary languageDanish written language of NorwayOld Icelandic most important of Old Scandinavian languages.

Iceland colonised in A.D. 874 by settlers from NorwayLiterature unsurpassed among Germanic peoples(Examples of literature page 31)Limited amounts of "Northwest Germanic" text survive from the 1st/2nd centuries A.D., carved inRunic script; later, the North Germanic languages developed in far northEurope(primarily the Scandinavian countriesDenmark,Sweden,Norway, and their islands).Old Norsewas the language of the Vikings, who settledIcelandas well as Scandinavia.West Germanic:2 main group:("High German") at higher elevations, in southernGermany,Switzerland, andAustria, and the other ("Low German") further north and along the coast, including theNetherlandsandBelgium.(Sound shift analogous to that described as Grimms law p,t,k,d)Old English : Old Saxon, Old Low Franconian, Old Frisian, Old EnglishOld Saxon: modern Low German or PlattdeutschModern Dutch in Holland and Flemish in Belgium: mixture of Old Franconian, Frisian and Saxon elementsFrisian: Dutch province FrieslandHigh German in midlandsImperial chanceryLuthers translation of the Bible(1522- 1532)16th century: literary language of modern Germany.2000-500:Proto-Germanic500-1BC: East, Runic1-500AD: Gothic,Vandalic,North, West500-1000:Old Norse,Old High German,Old Saxon,Old English,Old Dutch1000-1500:Crimean Gothic,Old Icelandic,Old Norwegian,Old Swedish,Old Danish,Middle High German,Middle Low ,German,Middle English,Middle Dutch

1500_2000:Icelandic,Norwegian,Swedish,Danish,German,Swiss German,Pennsylvania Dutch,Yiddish,Low German,English,Dutch,Afrikaans

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