Indo-European Language Branch

Why is English related to Other Languages?

English = Indo-European language family

A language family- a collection of langs related thru a common ancestor that existed long before recorded history.

Indo-European is the language family with the most speakers (~3 bil).

Indo-European Branches

W/in lang families are language branches A language branch- a collection of langs

related thru a common ancestor that existed thousands of years ago. differences are not as extensive/old as with lang.

families archaeological evidence can confirm that the

branches derived from the same family

Indo-European is divided into 8 branches: Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Albanian, Celtic, and Armenian

Diagram the BranchesOn the paper provided, create a

diagram/hierarchy of Indo-European family treeBe sure to include all the languages on the

handout provided. Include information about # of speakers and

where it will be spoken.On the back, you may want to note which

are official languagesOutline the origin & diffusion section on the

back/ own paper

Germanic Branch

English = Germanic Language Branch West Germanic Group

A language group is a collection of langs w/in a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past, & display relatively few differences in grammar and vocab

West Germanic Group

Includes the languages of German & English, Afrikaans, and Dutch High Sub-Group:

German is spoken mainly in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

Low Sub-Group: English is spoken on every continent (key places: Great

Britain, United States, Canada, India, Japan, and Australia)

Dutch in the Netherlands, Flemish in Belgium Afrikaans in South Africa & Namibia (like Dutch)

North Germanic Group

Sometimes called Nordic North Germanic

languages of Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Danish Derived from Old Norse

English word Icelandic wordSpoken comparison

apple epli  listen (help·info)

book bók  listen (help·info)

high/hair hár  listen (help·info)

house hús  listen (help·info)

mother móðir  listen (help·info)

night nótt  listen (help·info)

stone steinn  listen (help·info)

that það  listen (help·info)

word orð

Romance Branch

The Romance Branch evolved from the Latin lang. spoken by Romans 2,000 years ago

The four most common Romance languages are Spanish, Portuguese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and ItalianFrench, and ItalianFrench and Spanish are two of the six

official UN languages

Romance Branch

RomanianRomanian in Romania and MoldovaOnly one spatially separated

Others include RomanshRomansh (one of Switzerland’s 4 official languages), and CatalanCatalan (spoken in Spain, and the official language of Andorra)4 more in Europe

Haiti: French Creole is ex. of Rom. language spoken outside Eur.

Creole

creolized language = mix of a colonial language and an indigenous langForms when a colonized grp adopts the

lang of the dominant grp, but makes some changes (usually involving vocab from native lang or grammar changes)

History of the Romance Languages

Latin was spread by the soldiers of the Roman EmpireWhen they conquered a group of people,

they taught them LatinThe ppl spoke a different form of Latin

called Vulgar Latin, or Latin of the People.Ex: The Latin word for horse is equus, but the

Vulgar Latin word for horse was caballus. Italian: cavallor, Spanish: caballo, Portuguese: cavalo, and French: cheval

Spanish and Portuguese

Both of these languages are important around the world due to Spanish and Portuguese imperialismSpanish is the official language in 18 Latin

American countriesLingua franca of region

Portuguese is the official language of Brazil

Balto-Slavic Branch

Roots are more AsianDue to isolation of different groups when

they arrived in Eastern Europe, different languages emergedEast*, West, South Slavic and Baltic GROUP

Languages include: UkrainianUkrainian, , RussianRussian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, and the Baltic langs

Balto-Slavic Branch

Russian is most widely spoken lang, and is spoken by 80% of the RussiansRussian is one of the 6 official languages of

the UNRussification post-WWII

Ukrainian and Belarusian next in # for East Slavic.

The Eastern Baltic languages include Latvian and Lithuanian.

Balto-Slavic Branch

Main West Slavic languages are Polish (Poland), Czech and Slovak (former Czechoslovakia) Speakers of Czech and Slovak can understand

each other

South Slavic- Slovene in Slovenia, Macedonian in Macedonia, and Serbo-Croatian is spoken by rest of Yugo. w/ conflicts, similarities are NOT being preserved Montenegrans & Serbs use Cyrillic alphabet

Indo-Iranian Branch

The Indo-Iranian branch has the most speakers.

It has over 100 langs with over 1 billion native speakers

The branch includes the languages of Persian (Farsi), Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi

The Indic (eastern) Group

1/3 of Indians use HindiHindiSpoken many different ways, but there is 1

common written form of the language called Devanagari

India’s constitution recognizes 18 official languages4 diff lang. families present

The Indic Group

Pakistan’s principal language is Urdu, and the written form is Arabic alphabet

Bangladesh’s main language is Bengali

English not official. Only 1% speak itBut often common language

The Iranian (western) Group

Indo-Iranian languages are spoken in Iran and neighboring countriesPersian, or Farsi, is main lang in Iran.Other languages include Kurdish and Pashto

(Pathan/Pashtun)

All of these are written w/ Arabic alphabet.

Other Languages

Greek, Albanian, Celtic, and Armenian are in the Indo-European family, but stand on their own

Greek: in Greece, 12 million native speakers. Armenian: in Armenia, 6 million native

speakers. Albanian: in Albania (some Serbia, Italy), 7.3

million native speakers Celtic: in UK (some France), 1.4 million

Gimbutas: war

Renfrew: agriculture