1. Indo-European Language Branch

3. 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).

5. 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

6. Diagram the Branches
On the paper provided, create a diagram/hierarchy of Indo-European family tree
Be 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 languages
Outline the origin & diffusion section on the back/ own paper

8. 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

9. 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)

10. North Germanic Group Sometimes called Nordic
North Germanic languages of Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Danish
Derived from Old Norse
English word
Icelandic word
Spoken comparison
apple
epli
 listen (help·info)
book
bók
high/hair
hár
house
hús
mother
móðir
night
nótt
stone
steinn
that
það
word
orð

12. 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, French, and Italian
French and Spanish are two of the six official UN languages

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

14. Creole
creolized language = mix of a colonial language and an indigenous lang
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)

16. History of the Romance Languages
Latin was spread by the soldiers of the Roman Empire
When they conquered a group of people, they taught them Latin
The 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

17. Spanish and Portuguese
Both of these languages are important around the world due to Spanish and Portuguese imperialism
Spanish is the official language in 18 Latin American countries
Lingua franca of region
Portuguese is the official language of Brazil

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

20. Balto-Slavic Branch
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
Russification post-WWII
Ukrainian and Belarusian next in # for East Slavic.
The Eastern Baltic languages include Latvian and Lithuanian.

21. 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

23. 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

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

25. 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 it
But often common language

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

28. 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

29. Gimbutas: war

30. Renfrew: agriculture