IndoEuropean Language Family Why is English related to

Indo-European Language Family

Why is English related to Other Languages? l English = Indo-European language family l A language family- a collection of langs related thru a common ancestor that existed long before recorded history. l Indo-European is the language family with the most speakers (~3 bil).

Indo-European Branches W/in lang families are language branches l A language branch- a collection of langs related thru a common ancestor that existed thousands of years ago. l l 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 Branches l On the paper provided, create a diagram/hierarchy of Indo-European family tree Be sure to include all the languages on the handout provided. l Include information about # of speakers (if impt) and where it will be spoken. l l You may want to note which are official languages or have various alphabets l Outline the origin & diffusion section on the back/ own paper

Germanic Branch l English = Germanic Language Branch West Germanic Group l 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 l Includes the languages of German & English, Afrikaans, and Dutch l High Sub-Group: l l German is spoken mainly in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland Low Sub-Group: l l l 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 l North Germanic languages of Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Danish l l Derived from Old Norse English word Icelandic word S c apple epli book bók high/hair hár house hús mother móðir night nótt stone steinn that það word orð

Romance Branch l The Romance Branch evolved from the Latin lang. spoken by Romans 2, 000 years ago l The four most common Romance languages are Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian l French and Spanish are two of the six official UN languages

Romance Branch l Romanian in Romania and Moldova Romanian l Only one spatially separated l Others include Romansh (one of Romansh Switzerland’s 4 official languages), and Catalan (spoken in Spain, and the official Catalan language of Andorra) l 4 more in Europe l Haiti: French Creole is ex. of Rom. language spoken outside Eur.

Creole l creolized language = mix of a colonial language and an indigenous lang l Forms 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 l Latin was spread by the soldiers of the Roman Empire l When they conquered a group of people, they taught them Latin l The ppl spoke a different form of Latin called Vulgar Latin, or Latin of the People. l 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 l Both of these languages are important around the world due to Spanish and Portuguese imperialism l Spanish is the official language in 18 Latin American countries l l Lingua franca of region Portuguese is the official language of Brazil

Balto-Slavic Branch l Roots are more Asian l Due to isolation of different groups when they arrived in Eastern Europe, different languages emerged l East*, West, South Slavic and Baltic GROUP l Languages include: Ukrainian, Russian, Russian Czech, Slovak, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, and the Baltic langs

Balto-Slavic Branch l Russian is most widely spoken lang, and is spoken by 80% of the Russians Russian is one of the 6 official languages of the UN l Russification post-WWII l l Ukrainian and Belarusian next in # for East Slavic. l The Eastern Baltic languages include Latvian and Lithuanian.

Balto-Slavic Branch l Main West Slavic languages are Polish (Poland), Czech and Slovak (former Czechoslovakia) l l 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. l l w/ conflicts, similarities are NOT being preserved Montenegrans & Serbs use Cyrillic alphabet

Indo-Iranian Branch l The Indo-Iranian branch has the most speakers. l It has over 100 langs with over 1 billion native speakers l The branch includes the languages of Persian (Farsi), Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi

The Indic (eastern) Group l 1/3 of Indians use Hindi l Spoken many different ways, but there is 1 common written form of the language called Devanagari l India’s constitution recognizes 18 official languages l 4 diff lang. families present

The Indic (Eastern) Group l Pakistan’s principal language is Urdu, and the written form is Arabic alphabet l Bangladesh’s main language is Bengali l English not official. Only 1% speak it l But often common language, l de facto lang.

The Iranian (Western) Group l Indo-Iranian languages are spoken in Iran and neighboring countries Persian, or Farsi, is main lang in Iran. l Other languages include Kurdish and Pashto (Pathan/Pashtun) l l All of these are written w/ Arabic alphabet.

Other Languages l l l 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 l Ex: Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish

Gimbutas: war

Renfrew: agriculture