INDO-EUROPEAN BRANCHES
English is part of the Indo-European
language family
Most extensively spoken language family,
spoken by 48% of people
Nearly 3 billion people speak an IndoEuropean language as their 1st language
INDO EUROPEAN BRANCHES
Language Branch: collection of languages
related through a common ancestral language
that existed thousands of years ago
Divided into 8 branches
Most spoken: Indo-Iranian, Romance, Germanic
and Balto Slavic
Least spoken: Albanian, Armenian, Greek &
Celtic
INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE FAMILY
Fig. 5-5: The main branches of the Indo-European language family include Germanic,
Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian.
USING COLORED PENCILS, COLOR-CODE YOUR MAP
Indo-European Language Branches
Albanian
Germanic
Armenian
Greek
Balto-Slavic
Indo-Iranian
Celtic
Romance
ON THE BACK OF YOUR MAP
Divide your paper into 8 parts for each of the language branches
-take notes for each branch using Key Issue 2: Figure 5-5, 5-8, 5-12
More-Spoken Branches
Less-Spoken Branches
Indo-Iranian
Albanian
Germanic
Armenian
Romance
Greek
Balto-Slavic
Celtic
GERMANIC BRANCH
English & German are closely related
-Germanic tribes that invaded England 1,500
years ago
-Other Germanic languages:
-Dutch & Frisian (Netherlands)
-Flemish (Belgium)
-Afrikaans (South Africa)
-Scandinavia: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian,
Icelandic
GERMANIC BRANCH OF INDO-EUROPEAN
Fig. 5-6: The Germanic branch today is divided into North and West Germanic
groups. English is in the West Germanic group.
INDO-IRANIAN BRANCH
Most spoken of Indo-European family
More than 100 languages, 1 billion people
Eastern Group: Indic
Western Group: Iranian
INDIC (EASTERN) GROUP OF INDO-IRANIAN BRANCH
2nd largest language group
Mostly common in India
1/3 of Indians speak Hindi (Indic)
-Many ways to speak it
-Only ONE way to write it: Devanagari (7th Century)
-Until recently few speakers could read/write it
Pakistan: Urdu language
-spoken like Hindi, but written in Arabic (Muslim)
INDIA
4 language families represented in India
-IndoEuropean (North) -Dravidian (south)
-Tibetan (NE)
-Austro-Asiatic
(central/Eastern highlands)
Independence, 1947
Proposed official language: Hindi
Dravidian speakers of South objected
Constitution recognizes 18 official languages
English is often used for communication as a “common
language”
SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGES AND
LANGUAGE FAMILIES
Fig. 5-7: Indo-European is the largest of four main language families in South Asia.
The country of India has 18 official languages.
IRANIAN (WESTERN) GROUP OF INDO-IRANIAN BRANCH
Iran & southwestern Asia
Persian (Farsi): Iran
Pashto: E Afghanistan & W Pakistan
Kurdish: W Iran, N Iraq, E Turkey
All written in Arabic alphabet
BALTO-SLAVIC BRANCH OF INDO-EUROPEAN
Formerly a single language
7th Century AD, Slavs migrated from Asia to E Europe
Different languages as a result of migration
Four major groups:
East,
West,
South Slavic
and Baltic
EAST SLAVIC AND BALTIC GROUPS
Most widely spoken: Russian, 80% of Russian people
Soviet officials forced native speakers of other languages
to speak Russian
Form a sense of national unity
After collapse of Soviet Union, eastern countries adopted
other official languages
-shows more cultural diversity
Russian still used for communication in countries
formerly part of Soviet Union
Ukranian & Belarusan: 2 other important languages in
East Slavic languages
WEST AND SOUTH SLAVIC GROUPS
Polish: most spoken West Slavic language
Former Czechoslovakia
Czech and Slovak: understand each other's languages
-tried to balance the two languages (1/2 sport game
announcement in each)
-Slovakia split from Czech Republic in 1993
Former Yugoslavia: language was Serbo-Croatian
Two alphabets: Roman alphabet & Cyrillic alphabet
Now: Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian: all very similar
Suppressing Nationalism in Yugoslavia
ROMANCE BRANCH OF INDO-EUROPEAN
Evolved from Latin: spoken by Romans 2000 years ago
Four most spoken: Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian
Mountains separate the countries: intervening obstacles
-barriers to communication
Romanian: 5th most spoken: Romania & Moldova
Other languages: 1) Romansh (Switzerland) and
2) Catalan (Andorra-Pyrenees and E Spain-Barcelona)
3) Sardinian mixture of Spanish, Arabic & Italian (Sardinia)
SPANISH VS CATALAN
Castillian Spanish
Latin American Spanish
English
billete (m)
boleto (m)
ticket
ordenador (m)
computadora (f)
computer
tortilla (f)
tortilla (f)
In Spain, a ‘tortilla’ is an
omelette.
In Latin America, a
‘tortilla’ is a flat bread.
melocotón (m)
durazno (m)
peach
patata (f)
papa (f)
potato
ORIGIN OF DIFFUSION OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES
Diffusion of Latin language during expansion of -Roman Empire over hundreds of years
Previous languages spoken mostly eliminated
Latin varied throughout empire
Merged & evolved with previous languages
ORIGIN AND DIFFUSION OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES
“Vulgar Latin” a spoken form of Latin, used throughout the Roman Empire
Literary term: equus - equestrian, equine
Vulgar term: caballus  caballo, cavalo, cheval
Collapse of Roman Empire, 5th Century
Communication between provinces decreased
-creating more variation in languages
ROMANCE LANGUAGE DIALECTS
Francien French
Language of Paris (capital/largest city), dominated local dialects
Became official language for France in 16 th Century
North and South Dialects derive from different ways to say “yes” in Latin
Yes
Latin
Hoc illud est
Northern France
Langue d’oil
Paris
o – il
“wheel”  “oui”
Southern France
Langue d’oc
oc
ROMANCE LANGUAGE DIALECTS
Spain
Castilian, 9th century in Old Castile, North-central Spain
Spread southward
15th Century, Spain united into present country
Castilian became official language
Regional dialects only remained in secluded rural areas
“Castilian” or “Spanish” is official language of Spain
today
SPANISH & PORTUGUESE
90% of speakers live outside Europe
Diffused to America by Spanish & Portuguese
Land divided by Pope Alexander VI 1493
Spanish Royal Academy
Meet weekly to clarify spelling, vocab, pronunciation of
“Spanish”
PORTUGUESE
1994 language was standardized
Language more closely resembles Brazilian
Portuguese
Upsets people in Portugal
Eliminates accent marks
CREOLE LANGUAGES
Distinction between a dialect and a new language can be difficult
Speakers like to classify their dialect as a distinct language
Creolized languages (origin of “creole” = slave born in master’s house)
A language that results from mixing of colonizer’s language with the
indigenous language of people being dominated
French Creole in Haiti
Portuguese Creole in Cape Verde islands of African coast
ORIGIN AND DIFFUSION OF INDO-EUROPEAN
Germanic, Romance, Balto Slavic and IndoIranian languages
Same language family: Indo-European
Evidence of a single ancestor cannot be proved
with certainty
KURGAN THEORY OF INDO-EUROPEAN
ORIGIN
Fig. 5-9: In the Kurgan theory, Proto-Indo-European diffused from the Kurgan
hearth north of the Caspian Sea, beginning about 7,000 years ago.
ANATOLIAN HEARTH THEORY OF INDOEUROPEAN ORIGIN
Fig. 5-10: In the Anatolian hearth theory, Indo-European originated in Turkey
before the Kurgans and diffused through agricultural expansion.