Why is English related to other languages?

1. Why is English related to other languages? • A LANGUAGE FAMILY is a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history. • Indo-European is the world’s most extensively spoken language family (nearly 3 billion people) • Within a language family, a LANGUAGE BRANCH (or sub-family) is a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago. • A LANGUAGE GROUP is a collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.

3. Germanic Branch • West-Germanic is the group within the Germanic branch that English belongs to. • West-Germanic is further divided into sub-groups: High Germanic (basis for modern German) and Low Germanic (English, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, Frisian) • North Germanic—4 Scandinavian languages: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic

4. Indo-Iranian Branch of Indo-European • Includes more than 100 individual languages spoken by 1 billion people. • Branch can be divided into two groups, eastern (Indic) and western (Iranian). • Indic languages include Hindi (1/3 India)—spoken many different ways but written in Devangari • Urdu (Pakistan) is spoken like Hindi but written in the Arabic alphabet • Iranian—Farsi, Pashto (Afghanistan), and Kurdish—Arabic alphabet

5. Balto-Slavic Branch • Slavic was once a single language with the hearth in Asia. Several groups migrated to different areas of Eastern Europe—divided into East, West, and South Slavic groups and also Baltic. • East—mostly Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian • West—Polish, Czech, Slovak • South Slavic—spoken in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia • Bosnia and Croatians use the roman alphabet and Montenegrins and Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet • When the countries belonged to Yugoslavia, language was called Serbo-Croatian—recalls dominance of Croatians and Bosnians by Serbs—now Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian.

6. Romance Branch • What are the 5 most common romance languages? SPANISH, PORTUGUESE, FRENCH, ITALIAN, AND ROMANIAN • What is the root? Latin vs. Vulgar Latin • Mountain ranges—intervening obstacles • Romansh (SW) Catalan (Andorra & Catalonia), Sardinian, • Ladin, Friullian (Italy), and Romansh are official dialects of Rhaeto-Romanic • Ladino—mixture of Spanish, Greek, Turkish and Hebrew—spoken in Israel

7. Romance Language Dialects • France—North and South • Originally Francien (hearth Ile de France) official in 16th century • Langue d’oil / langue d’oc • Hoc illudest (that is so)-> Hoc-> oc O-il • Languedoc, (Occitan, Auvergnat, Gascon, Provencal)

8. Spain/Portugal • Kingdom of Castile merged with Leon and Aragon--Castilian Spanish • Now called Spanish but Castilian in Latin America • Spanish and Portuguese achieved global importance because of imperialism. • Spanish Academy—published official dictionary in 1992 • 1994 Portugal, Brazil and several African countries standardized Portuguese.

9. Dialects vs. Separate languages • It is difficult to decide what is a dialect and what is a separate language • Creole or creolized language • Mutual intelligibility?

11. Mutual Intelligibility • Means two people can understand each other when speaking. • Problems: • Cannot measure mutual intelligibility • Many “languages” fail the test of mutual intelligibility • Standard languages and governments impact what is a “language” and what is a “dialect”

12. Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European • Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian are all part of the same Indo-European family. • Linguists believe the languages to have descended from one common ancestral language—proto-European.

13. How do Linguists Study Historical Languages? • Backward reconstruction – tracking sound shifts and the hardening of consonants backward to reveal an “original” language. • Can deduce the vocabulary of an extinct language. • Can recreate ancient languages (deep reconstruction) • Can use common roots for various words to deduce what type of location the “original” language came from.

14. FOR EXAMPLE… • Looking at the physical attributes of the words themselves, one finds common roots in all Indo-European languages with words such as winter, snow, bee, oak, beech, bear, dear, and pheasant. • Words such as ocean, elephant, camel and rice cannot be traced back to a common Proto-Indo-European ancestor. • What does that say?

15. Historical Linkages among Languages • Indo-European language family • Proto-Indo-European language • Nostratic Language

16. Linguists and Anthropologists • Agree on the existence of a language • Disagree on when and where and on the processes and routes • One theory argues war and conquest • Another peaceful food sharing

17. Kurgan Theory • MarijaGimbutas • Steppes near the border of modern day Russia and Kazakhstan • Earliest evidence dates back to 4300BC • Nomadic herders migrating through Western Europe, eastward to Siberia and southeastward to Iran and South Asia • Used horses and conquered much of Europe and South Asia between 3500 and 2500 BC

19. Anatolian Hearth Theory • Colin Renfrew • First speakers lived 2,000 years before the Kurgans, in Eastern Anatolia (present day Turkey) • Argues that speakers grew their own food and so were peaceful and just grew in population