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Indo- European Language Family

            
             The Indo-European proto-language was spoken south of the Caucasian mountains in the Aras river valley extending to the Black and Caspian Seas and north of the Black sea in the area between the Danube and Volga Rivers by a collection of semi-nomadic clans and rural tribes which more or less were hunters and gatherers around 6000 - 4000 B.C.E. Scholars have determined the location based on an extensive reconstructed vocabulary of Proto Indo-European language, and the habitat it describes. Therefore Proto- Indo European is an artificial reconstructed language (PIE), which was constructed out of fossil words. .
             The break up of the early Indo- European society started around 4000 B.C.E. because of migration accompanied with specialization. The most significant form of specialization was from the nomadic, hunting lifestyle into herders and farmers. Also a major part of the break up were sound- shifts that occurred when certain groups migrated into various areas and were forced to deal with a different climate and landscape. Looking at the geography of were the Indo- European languages are spoken today it is clear that there were two groups a western group and an eastern group. These divisions of P.I.E are referred to as Centum and Satem. The sound-shift that happened was the velar sound K in Centum shifted to sibilant S in Satem. Centum is Latin for one hundred whereas Satem is the Sanskrit version for one hundred. .
             The so called eastern group (Satem Branch) probably migrated around the eastern slopes of the Caucasian Mountains toward the north. Migrates to the north were Slavic people, who probably are the descendants of herders and farmers, who stayed in the general area of the Indo- European homeland and late spread out to today's Slavic regions of Europe. Other parts of this eastern group migrated around the southern tip of the Caspian Sea the Aryans of Iran, Persia and India and the Balts migrated to the Danzig river delta around 2000 B.


Essays Related to Indo- European Language Family

1. The History of the English Language

... of becoming the unofficial language of the world. Half of all business deals are conducted in English. Two thirds of all scientific papers are written in English. Over 70% of all post/mail is written and addressed in English and most international tourism and aviation in conducted in English. (Cuddon p.281) English is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. This broad ... ) the Slavic languages, the Baltic languages of Latvian and Lithuanian (but not Estonian, the Celtic languages, and Greek). (Literature: The British Edition p.8) Of these above-mentioned branches of the Indo-...

  • Word Count: 2103
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. The English Language

Some Facts about the English Language Introduction English is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. This broad family includes most of the European languages spoken today. The Indo-European family includes several major branches: • Latin and the modern Romance languages • The Germanic languages • The Indo-Iranian languages, including Hindi and Sanskrit • The Slavic languages • The Baltic languages of ... Latvian and Lithuanian (but not Estonian) • The Celtic languages • Greek The influence of the original Indo-European language ... to an end (along with the destruc...

  • Word Count: 544
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Indo-european languages

... are 37.000 languages in the world but not all of them had been investigated. The most investigated family of languages is Indo-European. Two milliard people speak it. This language had spread in Asia, south Europe, Iran and India one million years ago. Some Indo-European languages developed and separated from its stem. Other languages survived the features of its parent languages. In these languages ... short vowels was retained (islaikyti). Also were retained ancient endings. Indo-European languages consist of eleven branches. The main of them are: Baltic, Slavic, Germanic, Italic-Roma...

  • Word Count: 277
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Language Families

... China, parts of Southeast Asia, and along the Himalayas, a mountain system in south central Asia. It is the world's second largest language family in number of speakers, surpassed only by the Indo-European language family, which includes English and most European languages. The Sino-Tibetan language family consists of about 200 languages in two major subfamilies: Chinese, or Sinitic languages, and Tibeto-Burman. The Tibeto-Burman subfamily comprises many ... more languages than the Chinese subfamily, but Chinese languages are spoken by many more people. The Dravidian language family was...

  • Word Count: 1183
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

5. Grimm's Law and Indo-European Language

Grimm's Law describes the change that occurred in the phonological system of the Indo-European language during its transition towards the Germanic dialect; this is the main characteristic of Germanic Language family so it defines the languages that belong to this family. This process solved an anomaly in the organization of the consonant system; it consisted of nine plosives and only one fricative. The process described by ... plural of modern English: Germ fōt (foot); pl *fōtiz (preOE) → fēt (OE) → feet (modE) mūs (mouse); pl *mūsiz (preOE) → *mȳsis (preOE) → mȳs (OE) ...

  • Word Count: 652
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Language and Communication

... , and displacement, and relies entirely on social convention and learning. Its complex structure affords a much wider range of expressions than any known system of animal communication. Language is thought to have originated when early hominines started gradually changing their primate communication systems, acquiring the ability to form a theory of other minds and a shared intentionality.  ... to occur. A group of languages that descend from a common ancestor is known as a language family. The Indo-European family is the most widely spoken and includes English, Spanish, Port...

  • Word Count: 1651
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. English Language Essay

... have you ever asked yourself what is it's origin? English is a Germanic language and it comes from the Indo European family. This language started in the fifth century AD. There were three Germanic Tribes from which the English Language arise. This three tribes were Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The Jutes crossed the ... North Sea, which is now known as northern Germany and Denmark. Britain's population spoke a Celtic language ... learn English and there are some historical reasons for them. Grammar is one of the biggest and most common difficulties in the English language. The reason for t...

  • Word Count: 518
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

8. The Kurds and the Middle East

... are formed in the order of subject, verb, and object. In the Kurdish language it goes object, subject, verb. So instead of saying mom feed me, they say 'مۆم فييد ميى' which directly translates to mom me feed. The Kurdish language is from the Indo-European language family then goes into the Indo-Iranian branch then to the Iranian branch then to the western branch then ... the northwestern branch. Linguistic change is when a language undergoes change due to internal and external factors due to new inventions and how complex the society ... is and if the speakers of the lan...

  • Word Count: 5728
  • Approx Pages: 23
  • Grade Level: High School

9. China

... below). Not a homogeneous whole. There is wide difference in the dialects they speak. Actually, between some dialects, there is more difference among them than some Indo-European languages, for example Spanish and Italian. Why they are called dialects? Chinese Romanization systems (Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Zhuyin Fuhao). There is one relatively homogeneous block, ... Chinese were totally ruled by northern aliens include Yuan and Ch'ing. The Chinese Language and Its Dialects Language Families in China 1. Sino-Tibetan Language Family: e.g. Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese, Mao, Yak 2. Altaic Language ...

  • Word Count: 3241
  • Approx Pages: 13
  • Grade Level: High School

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