THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES

I Geography of LanguageA. Language is the most important way culture is

transmittedB. Language can shape the attitudes,

understandings, and the responses of the society to which it belongs.

C. There are literally thousands of languages that are spoken throughout world

D. Language is a mark of cultural diversity and identity that helps distinguish social groups.

II Intro to LanguagesA. No official numbers of how many languages there

are. Between 4-7 thousandB. Language is an organized system of spoken words by

which people communicate with each other with mutual comprehension.

D. More than half of the worlds people speak just 8 languages

F. Some estimate that only 600 languages will exist by 2100

Family of languages It is a group of languages that are related to one another

in terms of (genetic) origin

They share a common ancestor

Features such as lexicon, phonology, morphology and syntax

It contains several subdivisions called branches

Major Language FamiliesPercentage of World Population

Fig. 5-11a: The percentage of w orld population speaking each of the main language families. Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan together represent almost 75% of the w orld’s people.

Indo-European family It refers to a family of languages which by about 1000 BC

were spoken over a large part of Europe and parts of southwestern and southern Asia

It contains about 140 languages

II Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European Languages A. Origin of the Indo-European Language

1. It can not be proven that there was a single ancestor to the Indo-European language family but there is evidence that a Proto-Indo-European language did exist.

2. Evidence is found in similar words in different languages such as oak, bear, deer, and pheasant and other words that could have been a part of daily life.

3. Indo-European languages share similar words for winter and snow, but not for ocean. Linguists believe that the Proto-Indo-European language came from a cold climate that did not have contact with the ocean.

B. Diffusion of the Indo European languageThere are two theories about the diffusion of the language.1.First is called the Kurgan theory named after the Kurgan people who lived in 4300 B.C. they came from the steppes near the boarder of Russia and Kazakhstan. They were nomads who domesticated the horse and cattle and moved west in search of grasslands. They used the horse as a weapon to conquer Southwest Asia and the Balkan peninsula.

Kurgan Theory of Indo-European OriginKurgan hearth north of the Caspian Sea, beginning about 7,000 years ago.

Fig. 5-9: In the Kurgan theory, Proto-Indo-European diffused from the Kurgan hearth north of the Caspian Sea, beginning about 7,000 years ago.

2. The other theory is that it came from eastern Anatolia, or present day Turkey. This idea believes the language spread by agricultural practices through Greece, Italy, up into central and western Europe

BranchesAnatolian: Completely extinct. Only

archeological discoveries (in Turkey) demonstrate its existence

Indo-Iranian: It contains two main subdivisions: Indic (Indo-Aryan) and Iranian

Hellenic: contains the languages spoken in the peloponnese peninsula, like Attic-Ionic, Arcado-Cyprian and Doric

Italic: contains the Latin, the creadle of the western civilization. The romances languages, like: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Rumanian

Germanic: includes English and belong to the north-western part of Europe.

German spoken today is High German English comes from Low German which was spoken in

the northern parts of Germany. Germanic also included the Scandinavian languages of

Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic, which all come from Old Norse.

Germanic Branch of Indo-European

Fig. 5-6: The Germanic branch today is divided into North and West Germanic groups. English is in the West Germanic group.

English Speaking CountriesEnglish is the official language in 42 countries, including some in which it is not the most widely spoken language. It is also used and understood in many others.

Fig. 5-1: English is the official language in 42 countries, including some in which it is not the most widely spoken language. It is also used and understood in many others.

Celtic: divided into continental and insular. Celtiberian, Lepontic, Brittanic, Welsh, Scots Gaelic.

Tocharian: found in archeological excavations in Chinese Turkestan

Baltic: survives in two languages: Lithuanian and Latvian (Lettish)

Slavic: south slavic Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian. West Slavic, which comprises Czech, Slovak, Polish, Kashubian and East Slavic, made up of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarussian.

Armenian: first attested in religious documents, influenced by Greek, Arabic, Syriac, and Persian.

Albanic: Gheg and Tosk. Influenced by its neighbours Greek, Slavic, and Turkish, as well as Latin.

Fragmentary languages: In addition to the 11 major subgroups, there are also many apparently unaffiliated languages which survive only in fragments such as glosses and sporadic inscriptions.

Aspects of the structure of Proto-Indo-European family of

languagesThese aspects are the ones that allow researchers to find out similarities in a family of languages, these are: Phonology, Morphology and Syntax.