Indo-European Language Family Overview

Study Notes

English belongs to the Indo-European family, a group of languages spoken across Europe and Western Asia.
Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor of English, was spoken by nomadic people approximately 5,000 years ago.
The discovery of Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language, played a crucial role in understanding the Indo-European family.
Sanskrit's extensive literature and preserved features provided evidence for a common origin of these languages.
The similarities between English and Sanskrit words, such as "brother" (English) and "bhrātar" (Sanskrit), suggest a shared ancestry.
Sanskrit's rich system of declensions(noun cases) and conjugations(verb forms) helped unveil the common origin of Indo-European languages.

The Germanic languages, a branch of the Indo-European family, descend from Proto-Germanic which evolved from Proto-Indo-European.
The Germanic branch is subdivided into East Germanic, North Germanic, and West Germanic.

Gothic, the principal language of the East Germanic branch, was spoken by the Goths who migrated from the Vistula River to the Black Sea region.
Their influence is evident in some runic inscriptions and parts of the New Testament.

North Germanic languages are found in Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.
The earliest traces of this language are found in runic inscriptions from the third century, with Old Norse emerging as a common Scandinavian language around the eleventh century.

West Germanic languages, including English, Frisian, Flemish, Dutch, Afrikaans, German, and Yiddish, are characterized by the High German Sound Shift, a significant consonant change that occurred around 600 AD.

West Germanic is further divided into High German and Low German.
High German, found in the mountainous and southern parts of the Germanic area, evolved from Old High German (before 1100) and Middle High German (1100-1500). Modern High German, established as the literary language in the 16th century, is a standardized form based on central German dialects.
Low German, spoken in the northern lowlands, includes Old Low Franconian, Old Frisian, and Anglo-Frisian. Modern Low German is a mixture of Frisian and Flemish elements and is spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northern Belgium, and northern Germany.

Grimm's Law, formulated by Jacob Grimm and his brother Wilhelm, describes a fundamental change in the consonantal system of Germanic languages.
This shift explains why certain sounds in English differ from their counterparts in Latin and Greek.

Studying language's history aids in the understanding of its underlying structure, evolution, and reasons for its current form.
The presence of irregularities and anomalies in English, such as irregular plurals and spelling inconsistencies, can be understood by tracing their historical roots.
The historical study of English helps us understand older texts and their language, grammar, and cultural references.
Studying the history of English provides insight into the cultural and social context in which the language developed, leading to a deeper understanding of its evolution.