Indo-European Language Families History of English Indo-European Language Families

18th Century England ruled India (as well as Africa, Australia, China, etc) In India it was discovered that Sanskrit (a religious language) looked like ancient Greek and Latin

Sanskrit It was believed that Greek, Latin and Sanskrit descended from a common language. It is believed that this “common” language was never written down and that it was a spoken language only.

Indo-European This “common” language became known as Indo-European. It is believed that this language was spoken some 6,000 years before the height of the Ancient Greek Culture (500 BCE).

Germanic Languages English is from the Germanic Language family. It is believed that the Germanic people were cut off from the Indo-European language group early on. It’s language evolved more quickly from its original. This is evident in the sound shifts that are found in the Germanic language.

Origins of English Old English dates from 449-1066 CE. Major events in history date the language. 449 CE: Saxons invade England. English has been a written language for 1000 years. Old English is scarcely recognized by English speakers today.

Old English Contd. Beowulf is written in Old English. Today we read a translated version. Old English used case endings to determine meaning. Word order did not matter because the case endings told the speaker if the word was a verb, noun, adj. etc.

Middle English Dates from 1066-1500 C.E. 1066 C.E. the Normans invade bringing the French language. 1387 C.E. The Canterbury Tales was written. 1476 C.E. Caxton’s printing press is introduced.

Middle English Contd. 1500 the Great Vowel Shift occurs. Today, we can read and understand Middle English. Within 200 years of Chaucer the language spoken can be considered an early form of modern English.

Modern English English today is the great borrower. We have about 20,000 words in common use. Three-fifths of these are borrowed words. This borrowing began when the Normans invaded in 1066 and only spoke French in the English Court for nearly 300 years.

English Contd. Examples of borrowed French words: Government, crown, jury, society, religion, royal, saint, miracle, estate, etc. During the 9th and 10th centuries many words were borrowed from Scandinavia. These pronouns are still used today: They, their, them.

English Contd. Once the printing press came into everyday use many Greek words were added to the language: Drama, comedy, botany, physics, etc. English also provides words for other languages as well.

World Languages It is estimated that there are between 4,000-8,000 languages spoken in the world today. Mandarin Chinese has the largest number of speakers (over 1 billion).

World Languages Contd. The English Language is the “common” language of the world. In London, England there are 178 different spoken languages. Los Angeles, California has 80 spoken languages. Guilford County has 88 different spoken languages.

Common Borrowed Words Celtic Dutch Flannel buoy Clan freight Whiskey yacht Arabic Spanish Algebra barbecue Zero ranch Alcohol California German Italian Quartz balcony Cobalt Mezzanine Sauerkraut piano Saxon Yiddish He bagel She lox It schmuck