•18th century mercantilism and colonialism = introduction of Sanskrit to European scholars

•Similarities between Sanskrit and European languages proved the existence of acommon language

•Early 19th century scholars analyzed the languages’ similarities in attempts to reconstruct the prehistoric language, now called Indo-European

Iceland, Ireland -- W

N -- Scandinavia

E – India

S – Greece, Italy

Indo-European

Indic Iranian Greek Armenian Slavic Baltic Albanian Celtic Italic Germanic

ENGLISH

• Most prevalent member of Indo-European family

• Extensive borrowing from German and Romance neighbors, Latin, Greek, and others

• Loss of much of original Old English vocabulary

• Due to borrowing from other Indo-European languages, English still contains over 50% Indo-European roots

• First 100 most frequent words in the English language are native Indo-European,and 83 of the second 100

•Comparative method -- look at words in various related languages and find recurring patterns to assist in finding the root word

•Example: “daughter-in-law”

Sanskrit Old English

Old Church Slavonic

Latin Greek Armenian

Snusa snoru snukha nurus nuós nu

What is the Indo-European root?

Sanskrit Old English Old Church Slavonic

Latin Greek Armenian

snusa snoru snukha nurus nuós nu

Sn-• Sanskrit, Germanic, and Slavic show the common Indo-European sn- beginning• In other Latin, Greek, and Armenian words, initial Indo-European s was lost before -n; we can assume this word follows suit

Regularity of sound correspondences

-u-• Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, and Armenian agree in using -u-• In other words, Slavic -u- corresponds to Sanskrit -u- and Old English -o- has undergone a change from earlier -u-

-s-• Sanskrit -s- changes to -s- when preceded by -u-• Slavic -s- changes to -kh- after -u-• In Latin always and in some Germanic cases, intervocalic -s- changes to -r- • In Greek and Armenian, intervocalic -s- disappears

Ending• Sanskrit, Old English, and Slavic endings suggest feminine ending• Latin, Greek, and Armenian have irregular (and therefore inherited) feminine endings

snusos (f.)

Apocope: the deletion of a vowel at the end of a word

Ex: nama name

Grimm’s Law:

p t k

f th h

b d g

Great Vowel Shift:

Indo-European Present-Day English Root Word

Albho (“white”)

Dheubh (“deep”)

Pent (“to tread, go)

Albh Alp Alf ælf (OE) Elf apocope Grimm’s Law Great Vowel Shift

deupaz (Germ.) deop (OE) Deep Grimm’s Law

finthan (Germ.) findan (OE) Find Grimm’s Law, Great Vowel Shift