Chapter 5
Key Issue 2
Germanic Branch
 West Germanic group- subgroups named for what?
 High-German
 Low- English, Dutch, Flemish
 North Germanic group
 Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic
All 4 derive from Old Norse
 Became 4 different languages- why?

Indo-Iranian Branch
 Indic (Eastern) group
 India + neighbors
 Major language of this group- Hindi
 Why is Hindi considered one singular language, even though
there are many ways to speak it?
 Hindi not the official language of India- why?

Repercussions of this?
 Iranian (Western) group
 Iran + neighbors
 Languages include Persian and Kurdish
 What alphabet are these languages written in?
Balto-Slavic Branch
 Slavic was once a single language- why did differences
develop?
 East Slavic and Baltic groups


Russian is by far the most primarily spoken of this group- why?
Other languages in this group are Ukrainian and Belarusian
 West and South Slavic groups



Polish, Czech, and Slovak are most widely spoken in this group
Czechoslovakia language difficulties?
Serbo-Croatian has become what?
Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian
 What is the main difference between the Bosnian/Croatian version
and the Montenegran/Serbian version of Serbo-Croatian?
 What are some other differences?

Romance Branch
 Romance branch evolved from which language?
 Four languages correspond to the boundaries of
which four countries?


Four languages:
Four countries:
Diffusion of English- Case Study
 Celts- British Isles, 2000 BC
 Invasion- Germanic tribes, 450 AD
 Anglo-Saxons
 Normans- 1066 AD
 French only
 Most people kept speaking English- why?
 Combination words = English
 America- 1607
 England defeated France in battle for colonization in 1700s
 Colonies- 1600s-1899
 Ireland, South Asia, South Pacific, southern Africa, Philippines
Diffusion of Romance Languages- Case Study
 Latin- “Roman’s language”
 Roman Empire- spread Latin through __ diffusion?
 Latin in the captured provinces- “Vulgar Latin”, which was the
people’s Latin
 After the Roman Empire collapsed, these different
regions’ versions of Latin changed because of __?
Diffusion of Proto-Indo-European: Theory 1
 Proto-Indo-European: the original language that the
Indo-European *family* evolved from (the roots of
our tree)
 Theory 1: The Nomadic Warrior Hypothesis

Marija Gimbutas is the author of this hypothesis
 First PIE speakers were the Kurgan people
 Lived between Russia and Kazakhstan
 Can be traced back to 4300 BC
 Conquered much of Europe and South Asia, spread PIE as they
went
Diffusion of Proto-Indo-European: Theory 2
 Theory 2: The Sedentary Farmer Hypothesis
 Supporters of this theory include Colin Renfrew and Russell D.
Gray
 First PIE speakers lived in Turkey about 2000 years
or more before the Kurgans
 They migrated west and northwest
 This all occurred through peaceful migrationbecause the speakers were agricultural, their culture
and language triumphed

What does agriculture have to do with it?
Understanding Check
 Describe the diffusion of either English, Romance
languages, or one of the theories of the Proto-IndoEuropean language
 One paragraph
 May use notes
Four Indo-European Branches
Germanic (1 group)
Indo-Iranian
Indic/Eastern (1 group)
Iranian/Western (1 group)
Balto-Slavic
East Slavic and Baltic (1 group)
West and South Slavic (1 group)
Romance (1 group)
Diffusion of English (1 group)
Diffusion of Romance (1 group)
Diffusion of Indo-European #1 (1 group)
Diffusion of Indo-European #2 (1 group)