By, Olivia Mulhern
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 English is a part of the Indo-European language family.
 A Language Family is a collection of languages related through a common
common ancestor that existed long before recorded history.
 Nearly 3 billion people speak Indo-European Language.
Indo-European Branches
Main point #1

 A Language Branch is a collection of languages related
through a common ancestor that existed thousand years
ago.
 Divided into 8 Branches:
1. Indo-Iranian (South Asia).
2. Romance (South Western Europe, & Latin America).
3. Germanic (North Western Europe, & North America).
4. Balto-Slavic (Eastern Europe).
5. Albanian
6. Armenian
7. Greek
8. Celtic
Branch #s 1-4 are must used.
Branch #s 5-8 are less used.
 English is part of the Germanic Branch of the Indo-European family
because the language was spoken by the Germanic tribes that invaded
England 1500 years ago.
 A Language Group is a collection of languages within a branch that
share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display
relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.
 Western Germanic is the group where English belongs (Have many
words in common).
- The Germanic Language branch
High Germanic: Modern standard German Language
(spoken in the southern mountains in Germany).
Low Germanic: English, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, &
Frisian.
(Languages from other countries: North America,
England, Netherlands, South Africa, etc).
also
includes North Germanic
Languages, spoken in Scandinavia.
Those languages include:
1. Swedish
2. Danish
3. Norwegian
4. Icelandic
- All of those 4 languages derived from
Old Norse in A.D 1000. All four of these
languages emerged after that time
because of migration.
Indo-Iranian Branch
•Includes more than 100 languages spoken
by more than 1 billion people.
•Divided into Western & Eastern Groups.
Eastern Group (Indic)
Western Group (Iranian)
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1/3 of Indians (mostly in the North), use
the language Hindi.
Hindi can be spoken in many ways, but
written in one way.
Written script is called Devanagari, which
was used in India since the 17th century.
Pakistan’s language is Urdu.
Urdu is spoken like Hindi, but written
with the Arabic Alphabet.
Hindustani  2 languages combined.
Major languages used are:
1. Persian (Iran)
2. Pathan (Eastern Afghanistan & Western
Pakistan).
3. Kurdish ( used by the Kurds of Western Iran,
Northern Iraq, & Eastern Turkey).
•
Use the Arabic Alphabet.
India has 4 important Language Families:
• Indo-European (Mainly in the North).
• Dravidian (South).
• Sino-Tibetan (Northeast).
• Austro-Asiatic (Central & Eastern Highlands).
Both Groups were forced to learn English as their 2nd Language.
Balto-Slavic Branch
 Was
once a single language until
migration began in the 17th century.
 Divided
groups.
into an East, West & South Slavic
East Group
•
Mostly Russian
•
Soviet Union in 1945 made them
learn Russian.
Other languages used were
Ukrainian & Belarusian.
(1/6 Official Languages in the United
Nations).
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West & South Group
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Most spoken West Slavic
language is Polish, followed by
Czech & Slovak.
The government tried to
balance the 2 languages
(Czech & Slovak) together .
Most spoken South Slavic
Languages are Serbo-Croatian,
and Bulgarian.
- Croatian is written using the
Roman Alphabet.
- Serbian is written in Cyrillic.
•
There aren’t many differences
between these languages,
because most people
understand each other.
Romance Branch
(all developed from Latin)
• Romance Language Branch evolved from the Latin Language spoken by the Romans
2,000 years ago.
• 4 most widely used Romance Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French & Italian.
• All these countries are connected by the borders of their countries (Spain, Portugal,
France, & Italy).
• 5th most important language in the Romance Branch is Romanian.
• Adding to those five languages, Romanish is one of the four official languages in
Switzerland. Catalan, is a Spanish dialect and is the official language in Andorra.
• 2nd century, the Roman Empire extended from the Atlantic Ocean on the west to the
Black Sea on the east and all lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
• The Latin people in the provinces learned Vulgar Latin.
• Vulgar Latin is a spoken form of Latin.
• These languages evolved over time.
• Used syllables to make it sound like English. (Example: French word “yes” like the
English “we”, spelled in French “oui”).
• Creole or Creolized Language (a language that results from the mixing of the
colonizer’s language with the “indigenous” language of the people being dominated).
Origin & Diffusion of
Indo-European
Main Point #2

 Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, & Indo-Iranian languages must be
descended from a single common ancestral language.
 It can’t be proved though because a language family can’t be identified
since it was too early in history and couldn’t be recorded.
 Proto-Indo-European Speakers (Single ancestor).
 The evidence people use are the similarities in the different
language's words.
 Beech, Oak, Bear, Deer, & bee – (similar roots in these languages).
 Rice, Bamboo, Camel – (different roots). Can’t be traced back to a
Proto-Indo-European ancestor. These roots must have been added
later, after the root language split into many languages.
 Kurgans (4300 B.C – First Proto-Indo-European as recorded; Lived in
present day Russia & Kazakhstan).
Renfrew’s Theories
Renfrew believes they diffused from:
Anatolia
Westward to Greece (Greek Language Branch)
Westward to Italy, Sicily,
Corsica, the Mediterranean coast of France, Spain, & Portugal (Romance Branch)
Northward toward central & Northern France & onto the British Isles (Celtic Branch).
ALSO
Northward from Greece
Toward Danube River (Romania)
Westward to
Central Europe (Germanic Branch)
Northward Baltic Sea
Eastward to
Dnester River (near Ukraine; Slavic Branch)
Eastward to Dnepr River (homeland of Kurgans).
• After many generations of complete isolation, individual groups evolved increasingly distinct
Languages.