Why do linguists believe in language families? Cognates – if languages have words in common (or words closely related to one another), linguists believe that the two languages are “related” and share a common “ancestor.” – The more cognates, the more closely related – ie, the less time that has passed since both were the same “parent” language. – Dialects = different versions of one language (speakers usually understand most of what another dialect speaker is saying) Standard American English vs. Standard British English – Languages = 2 dialects diverge into separate languages when speakers can no longer understand one another Portuguese vs. Spanish vs. French vs. Italian

Late 18 th C (1700’s) Classically trained Englishmen encounter Sanskrit and see that it has cognates with Greek and Latin. Propose idea that languages with cognates could be descended from one parent language. Start to map out cognates among European and Indian languages. American, African, East Asian, Pacific languages do not have significant cognates with I-E languages.

Indo-European A family / tree of languages

~ 5000 years ago / BC Humans speaking different languages all over the globe; almost none of these languages ever written down (and NO Indo-European languages written down) “Kurgan” culture (name given to them by archeologists) living in western Russia/central Europe and speaking PIE (Proto-Indo-European) – Semi-nomadic (some hunter-gatherer and some settled agriculture – Neolithic (late stone age, but with some metal working) – polytheists

Med Sea Black seaCaspian sea India Scandanavia England Ukraine Indo-European languages spread over centuries as speakers migrate.

Kurgan / PIE culture PIE speakers probably migrated / traded east and west, mostly moving southerly. Most of the cultures with which they came into contact ended up adopting their language. As PIE speakers lost contact with one another, they developed different dialects and then different languages from one another. These dialects and languages differ geographically, with PIE language families spread over geographical regions in Europe and Asia.

PIE ~1500 BC Some fragmentary Hittite (Mesopotamian) texts (discovered in 20 th C and still being translated) Extensive Sanskrit religious and literary texts (encountered by European linguists in 18 th C) – Oldest written I-E texts (Egyptian texts not I-E) – Preserve older features of PIE Ex: singular, dual, plural forms for nouns & pronouns PIE very grammatically complex – “daughter languages” less complex

Proto-Germanic before 500 BC One of the spoken “daughter” languages is Proto- Germanic – the “parent” language of all Germanic languages. By 500 BC, the first Germanic sound change – Grimm’s Law – has been completed. – We know this b/c these sound changes appear in ALL Germanic languages, so they must have taken place AFTER PIE diverges into Proto-Germanic, Proto- Italic, etc. and BEFORE Proto-Germanic diverges into German, English, Norse, etc. No written Germanic language texts until 300 AD

Grimm’s Law I b h, d h, g h in non-Germanic all go through intermediate steps to b, d, and g in Germanic b h b d h d g h g voiced aspirated stops become voiced stops Before 500 BC!

Grimm’s Law II p, t, k in non Germanic become f, θ, x or h in Germanic p f t θ k x or h voiceless stops become voiceless fricatives x is the voiceless velar fricative that is the final consonant sound in Bach [b ɑ x]; not a PDE sound, but an OE and ME sound.

Grimm’s Law III b, d, g in non-Germanic become p, t, k in Germanic b p d t g k voiced stops become voiceless stops link link

Germanic languages 500 BC – 300 AD No written Germanic texts until ~ 300 AD Proto-Germanic has diverged into different dialects. – North: What will become Icelandic, Norse, Swedish, Danish – East: Gothic (no longer extant) – West: What will become German, Dutch, English By ~ 300 AD, probably most German dialect speakers could make themselves understood to one another, but the dialects diverged further.