Ever wonder where all the words we use come from?

Most of the English words we use are actually part of

what linguists (language scholars)

call a family—

the Indo-European language family!

The Indo-European Language Family

Linguists think our language family began

thousands years ago with a people living near the

Black Sea. As they spread out in smaller groups, different languages

developed, which show similarities.

Indo-European Family Tree

But in 1066 came The Battle of

Hastings:England was conquered

by France!William the Conqueror

crossed from Normandy northwest

to Hastings, England!

English is basically Anglo-Saxon and part of the

Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, but the French

conquered England in 1066:that conquest lasted for hundreds of

years and influenced the development of the English language drastically.

Our oldest, easiest, most commonly used English words are

Germanic; the longer and more difficult words usually have Latin

origins, much of that coming from French influence..

The next slide shows our Pledge of Allegiance!The white words are

Germanic in origin; the red words have Latin

roots.Do the majority of the

words come from—the German or Latin

branches?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all!

How many of those words are Germanic and how many have

Latin roots?Which words are longer and more

difficult?Do you think the person who

wrote the pledge was well-educated or not?

Can you rephrase “I pledge allegiance to” in easier words?

So we’ve seen that German and Latin both play a pretty important part in the words we use every day. The oldest, easiest, and most commonly used words in English are closely related to modern German words; more difficult words in English often have roots in Latin.

German LatinSonne /sun sol/ solar

Mond/ moonluna/ lunar Hand/ hand manus/ manual

Which language family represents what your

ancestors spoke?

Do some of you have family members or

ancestors that represent a language family other than the Indo-European

family?