The Indo-European language family - uni-jena.dex4diho/HIST.The_IE_language_family.pdf · The Indo-European language family ... Numerals in Indo-European English Gothic Latin Greek

The Indo-European

language family

Principles of language change

Holger Diessel University of Jena

[email protected]

http://www.holger-diessel.de/

Germanic Germanic

West Germanic North Germanic East Germanic

Germanic Germanic


English

Frisian

German

Yiddish

Dutch

Afrikaans

Germanic Germanic


English Swedish

Frisian Danish

German Norwegian

Yiddish Icelandic

Dutch

Afrikaans

Germanic Germanic


English Swedish Gothic

Frisian Danish Vandal

German Norwegian Burgundian

Yiddish Icelandic

Dutch

Afrikaans

Romance

French Catalan

Italian Galician

Spanish Sardinian

Portuguese Provencal

Romanian Rhomansh

Sir William Jones (1786)

http://www.indev.nic.in/asiatic/History/index.htm

The comparative method

‘Old’ Languages

Indo-European (3500)

Semitic (Hebrew, Arabic, Egyptian)

Chinese

Japanese

Turkish

Dravidian

African languages

Native American languages

Phonetic evidence

You spotted snakes with double tongue,

Thorny hedge-hogs, be not seen;

Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong;

Come not near our fairy queen.

(Shakespeare)

Phonetic evidence

‘cosul’ consul

‘cesor’ censor

(Latin inscriptions)

Phonetic evidence

‘We produce this letter by pressing the lower lip on the

upper teeth. The tongue is turned back towards the

roof of the mouth, and the sound is accompanied by a

gentle puff of breath.’

(Roman grammarian)

700

500

400

0

200

400

800 1000 1200

1500

3000 Proto Indo-European

700

500

400

0

200

400

800 1000 1200

1500 Vedic Sanskrit


700

500

400

0

200

400

800 1000 Old Persian 1200 Hittite

1500 Vedic Sanskrit


700

500

400

0

200

400

800 Greek 1000 Old Persian 1200 Hittite

1500 Vedic Sanskrit


700

500

400

0

200

400 Classical Sanskrit


1500 Vedic Sanskrit


700

500

400

0

200 Latin



1500 Vedic Sanskrit


700

500

400 Gothic

0

200 Latin



1500 Vedic Sanskrit


700 English

500

400 Gothic

0

200 Latin



1500 Vedic Sanskrit


Sound correspondences

Sanskrit Latin Greek

asmi

asi

asti

smas

stha

santi

sum

es

est

sumus

estis

sunt

eini

ei

esti

esmen

este

eisi

English German Swedish

sun Sonne sol

house Haus hus

cat Katze kat

apple Apfel äpple

father Vater fader

hand Hand hand

go gehen går

see sehen sår

hear hören höra

run rennen rännar

dream träumen drömar


time Zeit

tongue Zunge

ten zehn

tame zahm

tent Zelt

to zu

two zwei

twins Zwillinge

Second Germanic

Sound shift (3-5th

century AD – 9th

century)

Second Germanic sound shift

time Zeit

tongue Zunge

ten zehn

hat hassen

eat essen

let lassen

that das

there da

through durch

pan Pfanne

path Pfad

pole Pfahl

ship Schiff

deep tief

sleep schlafen


cheese

child

chin

cheery

church

Käse

Kind

Kinn

Kirsche

Kirche

king König


Italian Sardinian Romansh French Spanish

Hundred

Sky

Stag

Wax

ʧnto

tʧelo

tʧErvo

tʧera

kɛntu

kɛlu

kɛrbu

kɛra

tsjɛnt

tsil

tsɛrf

tsairaɛ

sa

sjɛl

sɛʀ

siR

ʧjen

ʧjelo

ʧjerbo

ʧera

Numerals in Indo-European

English Gothic Latin Greek Sanskrit

one

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

nine

ten

ains

twai

θrija

fidwor

fimf

saihs

sibun

ahtau

niun

taihun

unus

duo

tres

quattuor

quinque

sex

septem

octo

novembe

decem

heis

duo

treis

tettares

pente

heks

hepta

okto

ennea

deka

ekas

dva

trayas

catvaras

panca

sat

sapta

asta

nava

dasa

PIE numbers Proto-Indo-European English

*sems, *oi- one

*duwo / *dwo two

*treyes three

*kwetwores four

*penkwe five

*sweks / *seks six

*septam seven

*októ eight

*newan nine

*dekamt ten

Sound correspondences?

Arabic Urdu Turkish Swahili Malay

news

time

book

service

beggar

xabar

waqt

kitab

xidmat

faqir

xabar

vaqt

kitab

xidmatgari

faqir

haber

vakit

kitap

hizmet

fakir

habari

wakti

kitabu

huduma

fakiri

khabar

waktu

kitab

khidmat

fakir

Grimm‘s law

Latin Old English Gothic

/p/ /f/

/t/ /θ/

/k/ /x/h/

/d/ /t/

/g/ /k/

pedum

piscis

tres

tu

cordem

centum

edo

decem

ager

genus

fot

fisc

three [Tri]

thou [TaU]

heart

hundred

eat

ten

acre

kin

fotus

fiskis

thrir

thuU

hairto

hund

itan

taihun

akrs

kuni

The first Germanic sound shift


/p/ /f/

/t/ /θ/

/k/ /x/h/

/d/ /t/

/g/ /k/

pedum

piscis

tres

tu

cordem

centum

edo

decem

ager

genus

fot

fisc

three [θri]

thou [θaʊ]

heart

hundred

eat

ten

acre

kin

fotus

fiskis

thrir thuU

hairto

hund

itan

taihun

akrs

kuni



/p/ /f/

/t/ /θ/

/k/ /x/h/

/d/ /t/

/g/ /k/

pedum

piscis

tres

tu

cordem

centum

edo

decem

ager

genus

fot

fisc

three [θri]

thou [θaʊ]

heart

hundred

eat

ten

acre

kin

fotus

fiskis

thrir thuU

hairto

hund

itan

taihun

akrs

kuni



/p/ /f/

/t/ /θ/

/k/ /x/h/

/d/ /t/

/g/ /k/

pedum

piscis

tres

tu

cordem

centum

edo

decem

ager

genus

fot

fisc

three [θri]

thou [θaʊ]

heart

hundred

eat

ten

acre

kin

fotus

fiskis

thrir thuU

hairto

hund

itan

taihun

akrs

kuni



/p/ /f/

/t/ /θ/

/k/ /x/h/

/d/ /t/

/g/ /k/

pedum

piscis

tres

tu

cordem

centum

edo

decem

ager

genus

fot

fisc

three [θri]

thou [θaʊ]

heart

hundred

eat

ten

acre

kin

fotus

fiskis

thrir

thuʊ

hairto

hund

itan

taihun

akrs

kuni


Grimm’s law

*p t k f T x/h

*b d g p t k

*bh dh gh b d g

Exceptions to Grimm’s law

[p t k]

[f T x] [b d g]

Sanskrit Old English

vártate weorTan

varárta wearT

vavrtimá wurdon

vavrta:ná worden

Verner’s law

[p t k] [f T x] / [stressed syllable] __

[b d g] / [unstressed syllable] __

Neogrammarian Hypothesis

Every sound change takes place according to laws that

admit no exceptions.

[Karl Brugmann]

Internal Reconstruction

[D] [T]

father think

mother thief

feather thick

heather thin

weather thigh

bother thank

The Indo-European language family - uni-jena.dex4diho/HIST.The_IE_language_family.pdf · The Indo-European language family ... Numerals in Indo-European English Gothic Latin Greek

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