Week 1: The Indo-Europeans Flashcards
Oldest and youngest branch
Oldest: Anatolian (16th c. BCE)
Youngest: Albanian (15th c.)
How do we know all these languages are related?
- Grammatical structure
- Shared vocabulary (cognates)
• Basic vocab; animals, family relations, numerals, body parts, basic verbs (sit, go), nature (sea, sun, moon), basic adjectives (round, big, small).
What is a language family?
A group of related languages that share a common ancestor.
What is a common ancestor in linguistics? What does the prefix “proto” signify?
A proto-language from which related languages descend.
The prefix signifies that proto- a language is not attested; it refers to a theoretical ancestor language.
What’s the biggest language family?
Indo-European; biggest in the number of speakers and languages.
What did people think of language until the Middle Ages?
That all languages derived from Hebrew because of the Bible (Tower of Babel).
Van Boxhorn’s theory (1647)
He thought that the reason for parallels between certain languages was because these languages had ‘one mother’, according to him this was Scythian.
He emphasised that loan words shouldn’t be considered for the purposes of language comparison, but instead you should look at everyday vocabulary. Thus, he noticed that a large amount of everyday vocabulary derives from his ‘Scythian’, our Indo-European.
Which 9 branches does Indo-European have?
- Albanian
- Greek
- Anatolian -> Hittite
- Armenian
- Indo-Iranian
- Tocharian
- Balto-Slavic
- Germanic -> Dutch, English
- Italo-Celtic
What did Sir William Jones imply?
He implied that the common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, Proto-Indo-European, perhaps no longer existed (1786).
How to establish a genetic relationship between languages?
By looking at basic, everyday vocabulary and systematic correspondences.
Paradigm
Term for the pattern of inflection of a word.
What is the issue with the theory of shared vocabulary?
The problem is that meanings can change and that there were often shared semantic changes; ‘Apple’ is often used for a new type of fruit.
How did the Indo-Europeans live?
- Lived in clan units in fortified settlements (probably nomads).
- They knew animals like cows, horses, pigs, dogs.
- Had agriculture (plot, sowing)
- Knew metalworking (copper)
When did the Indo-Europeans live?
After the invention of the wheel, points to the Late Stone Age/Early Bronze Age, so around 3500 BCE in Russia/Ukraine.
Patrilocal culture
A woman moves into her husband’s family and leaves her own.
