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Language Families

Language Families. Objectives. Definition of language family Indo-European-languages Proto-Indo-European-languages. language family. A language family is a set of  languages  deriving from a common ancestor or "parent."

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Language Families

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  1. Language Families

  2. Objectives • Definition of language family • Indo-European-languages • Proto-Indo-European-languages

  3. language family • Alanguage family is a set of languages deriving from a common ancestor or "parent." • Languages with a significant number of common features in phonology, morphology and syntax are said to belong to the same language family. Subdivisions of a language family are called "branches."

  4. It is estimated that there are more than 250 established language families in the world, and over 6,800 distinct languages, many of which are threatened or endangered.

  5. The number of languages that make up a language family varies greatly. • There are many languages that do not appear to be related to any other. These single-member language families are referred to as language isolates.

  6. English, along with most of the other major languages of Europe, belongs to the Indo-European  language family.

  7. Indo-European languages • A family of languages (including most of the languages spoken in Europe, India, and Iran) descended from a common tongue spoken in the third millennium B.C. by an agricultural people originating in southeastern Europe.

  8. The Indo-European homeland • Home of Indo-European • Area between northern Europe and southern Russia • Early Indo-Europeans have been identified with the Kurgan culture • Lived northwest of the Caucasus and north of the Caspian Sea

  9. Domesticated cattle for milk, meat, and transportation • Combined farming with herding • Were a mobile people, used 4-wheeled wagons • Built fortified palaces on hilltops

  10. Had a stratified society, with warrior nobility and laboring class • Believed in life after death, constructed elaborate burial sites • Expanded into the Balkans and northern Europe, then Iran, Anatolia, and southern Europe

  11. Branches of Indo-European (IE) include Indo-Iranian (Sanskrit and the Iranian languages), Greek, Italic (Latin and related languages), Celtic, Germanic (which includes English), Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Albanian, Anatolian, and Tocharian.

  12. Proto-Indo-European Languages • PIE was the first proposed proto-language to be widely accepted by linguists The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). • The term proto-language means an ancient parent language from which a group of related languages have descended through slow modification.:

  13. PIE are languages thus brought into relationship by descent or progressive differentiation from a parent speech are conveniently called a family of languages. The surviving languages show various degrees of similarity to one another, the

  14. similarity bearing a more or less direct relationship to their geographical distribution.

  15. Proto-Indo-European languages • It can be said that Proto-Indo-European refers to English--along with a whole host of languages spoken in Europe, India, and the Middle East.

  16. Proposed geographic location of original home of the Proto-Indo-European tribes

  17. They accordingly fall into eleven principal groups: Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Hellenic, Albanian, Italic, Balto-Slavic, Germanic, Celtic, Hittite, and Tocharian. •  It is by far the most well-understood of all proto-languages of its age. 

  18. PIE The languages thus brought into relationship by descent or progressive differentiation from a parent speech are conveniently called a family of languages.

  19. There for, English is a Germanic language which belongs to the Indo-European languages.

  20. Indo-Iranian • One of the oldest languages on record • Indic dialects • Vedic hymns (written in early Sanskrit) date from at least 1000 B.C. • Classical Sanskritappeared about 500 B.C. • Early grammarians formulated rules for its use • Sanskrit means ‘well-made’ or ‘perfected’ • Panini wrote a grammar of Sanskrit in 4th century B.C. still admirable today

  21. Bengali, Hindi, and Urdo developed from Prakrits (natural dialects) • Romany (Gypsy) contains loan words from other languages • Iranic dialects • Old Persian is the ancestor of Modern Iranian • Avestan is a sacred language preserved in the Avesta (a religious book)

  22. Italic • Latin was the main language in ancient Italy • Spread influence to Gaul, Spain, and other countries • Became a koine • Survives in Romance languages • Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian • Romance languages developed from Vulgar Latin • Spoken by common people

  23. Dialect of Paris, Picard, became standard French • Dialect of the kingdom of Castile became standard Spanish • Dialect of Tuscany became standard Italian

  24. Celtic • Used to be spoken in central & western Europe before Christian era • Gaulish was spoken in present day France • Brythonic threatened by arrival of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes • Welsh and Breton are closely related

  25. Cornish, no native speakers since 19th century • Goidelic(Gaelic) survived in Scots Gaelic, Manx, and Irish Gaelic

  26. Germanic • Includes English • Proto-Germanic was not recorded, only spoken • Spread over a large area, developed marked dialectal differences • North Germanic • Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faeroese

  27. West Germanic • High German, Low German (Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans), Frisian, English • Modern German and Yiddish developed from High German • Afrikaans developed from Dutch spoken in South Africa

  28. East Germanic • Gothic • Earliest of Germanic languages • No modern Germanic languages developed from Gothic

  29. Hellenic • Ancient Hellenic dialects • Mycenaean -Aeolic • Doric -Attic-Ionic • Attic became the basis of Greek because it was the dialect of Athens. • The koine (common dialect which ultimately dominated other Hellenic dialects

  30. Exercise • What is a language family? • What are the branches of the PIE? • Languages that have no common features among each other are known as………….

  31. Using the Proto- Indo-European family map trace the history of the Modern English language.

  32. Suggested Topics for research • Language Families • The Endo-European Languages • French Influences on the English Language • Latin and Greek Influences on the English Language • The Anglo-Saxon Period • The Vikings Period

  33. Old English Literature: Characteristics & a model: Beowulf • Middle English Literature: Characteristics & a model: The Canterbury Tales • Modern English literature: Characteristics and a model .

  34. The Differences Between the Old English and the Middle English Phonological Systems. • The Development of the Noun System of the English Language • The Development of the Verb System of the English Language

  35. The Distinctive Features of Old English Morphology • The Distinctive Features of Middle English Morphology • The Differences Between Old English and Middle English Syntax

  36. The Differences Between Middle English and Modern English Morphology. • The Differences Between Middle English and Modern English Syntax. • Differences Between British and American English

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