Key Issue #2

Why is English Related to other Languages?

By, Olivia Mulhern

English is a part of the Indo-European language family.

A Language Family is a collection of languages related through a common common ancestor that existed long before recorded history.

Nearly 3 billion people speak Indo-European Language.

A Language Branch is a collection of languages

related through a common ancestor that existed thousand years ago.

Divided into 8 Branches: 1. Indo-Iranian (South Asia). 2. Romance (South Western Europe, & Latin America). 3. Germanic (North Western Europe, & North America). 4. Balto-Slavic (Eastern Europe). 5. Albanian 6. Armenian 7. Greek 8. Celtic

Indo-European Branches

Main point #1

Branch #s 1-4 are must used.Branch #s 5-8 are less used.

English is part of the Germanic Branch of the Indo-European family because the language was spoken by the Germanic tribes that invaded England 1500 years ago.

A Language Group is a collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.

Western Germanic is the group where English belongs (Have many words in common).

Germanic Branch

High Germanic: Modern standard German Language(spoken in the southern mountains in Germany).Low Germanic: English, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, & Frisian.(Languages from other countries: North America, England, Netherlands, South Africa, etc).

- The Germanic Language branch also includes North GermanicLanguages, spoken in Scandinavia.Those languages include: 1. Swedish 2. Danish 3. Norwegian 4. Icelandic- All of those 4 languages derived from Old Norse in A.D 1000. All four of these languages emerged after that time because of migration.

Indo-Iranian Branch

•Includes more than 100 languages spoken by more than 1 billion people.

•Divided into Western & Eastern Groups.

Eastern Group (Indic)• 1/3 of Indians (mostly in the

North), use the language Hindi.• Hindi can be spoken in many ways,

but written in one way.• Written script is called

Devanagari, which was used in India since the 17th century.

• Pakistan’s language is Urdu.• Urdu is spoken like Hindi, but

written with the Arabic Alphabet. • Hindustani 2 languages

combined.

India has 4 important Language Families:• Indo-European (Mainly in the North).• Dravidian (South).• Sino-Tibetan (Northeast).• Austro-Asiatic (Central & Eastern

Highlands).

Western Group (Iranian)• Major languages used are: 1. Persian (Iran) 2. Pathan (Eastern Afghanistan & Western Pakistan). 3. Kurdish ( used by the Kurds of Western Iran, Northern Iraq, & Eastern Turkey).

• Use the Arabic Alphabet.

Both Groups were forced to learn English as their 2nd Language.

Balto-Slavic Branch Was once a single language until

migration began in the 17th century.

Divided into an East, West & South Slavic groups.

East Group• Mostly Russian (1/6 Official Languages in the United Nations).• Soviet Union in 1945 made

them learn Russian.• Other languages used were

Ukrainian & Belarusian.

West & South Group

• Most spoken West Slavic language is Polish, followed by Czech & Slovak.

• The government tried to balance the 2 languages (Czech & Slovak) together .

• Most spoken South Slavic Languages are Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian.

- Croatian is written using the Roman Alphabet.- Serbian is written in Cyrillic.

• There aren’t many differences between these languages, because most people understand each other.

• Romance Language Branch evolved from the Latin Language spoken by the Romans 2,000 years ago.

• 4 most widely used Romance Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French & Italian.• All these countries are connected by the borders of their countries (Spain, Portugal,

France, & Italy).• 5th most important language in the Romance Branch is Romanian.• Adding to those five languages, Romanish is one of the four official languages in

Switzerland. Catalan, is a Spanish dialect and is the official language in Andorra. • 2nd century, the Roman Empire extended from the Atlantic Ocean on the west to the

Black Sea on the east and all lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. • The Latin people in the provinces learned Vulgar Latin.• Vulgar Latin is a spoken form of Latin.• These languages evolved over time.• Used syllables to make it sound like English. (Example: French word “yes” like the

English “we”, spelled in French “oui”).• Creole or Creolized Language (a language that results from the mixing of the

colonizer’s language with the “indigenous” language of the people being dominated).

Romance Branch (all developed from Latin)

Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, & Indo-Iranian languages must

be descended from a single common ancestral language. It can’t be proved though because a language family can’t be

identified since it was too early in history and couldn’t be recorded. Proto-Indo-European Speakers (Single ancestor). The evidence people use are the similarities in the different

language's words. Beech, Oak, Bear, Deer, & bee – (similar roots in these languages). Rice, Bamboo, Camel – (different roots). Can’t be traced back to a

Proto-Indo-European ancestor. These roots must have been added later, after the root language split into many languages.

Kurgans (4300 B.C – First Proto-Indo-European as recorded; Lived in present day Russia & Kazakhstan).

Origin & Diffusion of Indo-European

Main Point #2

Renfrew’s TheoriesRenfrew believes they diffused from:

Anatolia Westward to Greece (Greek Language Branch) Westward to Italy, Sicily, Corsica, the Mediterranean coast of France, Spain, & Portugal (Romance Branch) Northward toward central & Northern France & onto the British Isles (Celtic Branch).

ALSO

Northward from Greece Toward Danube River (Romania) Westward to Central Europe (Germanic Branch) Northward Baltic Sea Eastward to Dnester River (near Ukraine; Slavic Branch) Eastward to Dnepr River (homeland of Kurgans).

• After many generations of complete isolation, individual groups evolved increasingly distinct Languages.