Indo-European languages Essays

  • Italic Branch of the Indo-European Language Family

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    The evolution of languages is constant even though minor and major changes are not usually apparent unless looking at the broader picture over a long period of time. Vocabulary is lost in the process, pronunciation and syntax are changed, and more vocabulary is added. Any language in the world has evolved from another, and most of these proto languages have suffered extinction. The Indo-European macro-family has seen this evolution and it has given rise to smaller micro-families that are each derived

  • Analysis of the Video Mother Tongues: Languages Around the World (2007)

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mother Tongues: Languages Around the World discusses the various languages found in Africa, Oceana, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The film starts with a brief description of Africa’s nearly 2000 languages. It explains that because of Africa’s relative isolation and long history of occupants it has the most languages of any land mass. The African languages include anything from Arabic, Swahili, or the ‘click’ language. Click languages are located only in Africa; in these languages the clicks function

  • Anglo-Saxon Warriors and the Klephts of Greece: Their Indo-European Origins

    2221 Words  | 5 Pages

    Anglo-Saxon Warriors and the Klephts of Greece: Their Indo-European Origins Anglo-Saxon warrior bands share the same code of honor as the Greek resistance fighters called Klephts both nations having a common Indo-European heritage and concept of hero. Beginning in the fifth century Germanic invasions transformed the Celtic culture of the British Isles. Anglo-Saxon warrior bands conquered the native Celts and prevailed in England from the fifth until the eleventh century. Warfare, the idea of

  • Nepali Interlanguage Research

    1831 Words  | 4 Pages

    Nepali belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family and is closely related to Hindi. It began appearing (in an older form) in what is now Nepal around 300 C.E., when Hindu Indo-Aryans invaded the area from the south, displacing the Buddhist Kirantis. The now unified Nepal is made up of over one hundred ethnic groups, each with its own language and culture. Nepali is the national unifying language and is spoken by most Nepalis as a first or second language (O'Rourke and Shrestha

  • The Proto-Indo European Dragon Slaying Myth

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    A common formula for the dragon-slaying myth is present among the descendants of the Proto-Indo European language. This formula first consists of a single male protagonist, typically of higher social status, that is almost always described as a “dragon slayer”, with a special weapon and a companion (Watkins 302, How to Kill a Dragon), and is specific in wording, by virtue of being spread via oral tradition (303). Secondly, in the myth, the dragon, usually many-headed, is described as either causing

  • “How is English similar and Different from Other Languages?”

    555 Words  | 2 Pages

    hardest languages to learn: therefore it must be different from other languages. This paper explores the similarities and differences between English and other well-known languages. Philology is the study of languages and language families. While no one knows the exact number of languages in the world, philologists estimate there are between 6,000 and 7,000 living languages in the world today. Out of this number of languages, there are about 100families that exist (Shoebottom). A language family

  • Cultural Relativism Reflection Paper

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    Institute, 2014). I selected the culture of Ireland and found the following information: Customs Roman Catholicism is practiced by most citizens, however, approximately 1.9% practice Christianity. Gaelic is the traditional voice, which is in the Indo-European language family. Due to modernization, immigration, and global connections, Gaelic is only spoken in smaller populations while English, Asian, and some Spanish is taking precedence over tradition. Manners Like any other society, mannerisms and etiquette

  • English Isn't So Simple...

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    declaring that 'American,' too, should be recognized as a separate language.'' One might assume our effort to understand what makes up the English language is a simple issue of education. A lack of education is what a British person assumes is going on when he comes to America and hears the word 'normalcy' in place of 'normality.' The person would be wrong, though, as the attitude that 'American' is separate from 'British' in language is a political issue. "Since the eighteenth century, it has

  • Address term

    1041 Words  | 3 Pages

    in a given language (Aliakbari & Toni, 2008). Oyetade (1995) defines address terms as words or expressions used in interactive and face-to-face situations to designate the person being talked to. Address terms in different speech communities are worthy of study, address terms seem to be influenced by culture (Fitch, 1991; Morford, 1997). Zhang (2011) maintains that “Culture and language are closely linked. Language is the carrier of culture, culture is reflected through language. Language is the presentation

  • Comparative Linguistics Essay

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    Proto-Indo-European Language Encyclopedia Britannica (2009) claimed that Sir William Jones wrote various notes regarding similarities between Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Gothic, Celtic and Persian, and he believed that these languages derived from an older language, which yet to be discovered (as cited in Knapp). This encouraged other philologists to research more on the comparative linguistics or comparative grammar (see 3.2 Comparative Linguistics for discussion). Proto-Indo-European Language is a linguistic

  • The Importance Of The Great Vowel Shift

    1826 Words  | 4 Pages

    English language has lately become the world’s lingua franca, making it one of the most spoken languages worldwide. An important feature that gives it a sustainable advantage over other languages is ability to easily adapt to changes. It is spoken in many dialects across multiple countries and continues to welcome new words while other words change meaning or are slowly abandoned. For instance, the word “abandoned” wouldn’t have made sense in the last sentence if an English man from the 14th century

  • Deaf Community Case Study

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    country's population is estimated at 46.40 million. b. How many official languages are spoken in that country? - The languages that are spoken in Spain are *Andorra and France *Belize *Portugal and Spain b. How many native speakers does each language in the country have? - Native speakers in Spain are about out of 740 million of the total population, means approximately 94% of the Indo-European language speakers in Indo-European, the top three are the people of Slavic, Germanic and romance, with

  • The African Athena Controversy

    1864 Words  | 4 Pages

    nature of the relationship and what period of time this relationship existed. After reading the three articles presented, I have come to agree with Martin Bernal and his Revised Ancient Model of Greek origins. At one time Egypt was accepted as European, but that status began to erode and in the 1790’s Egypt was regarded as an African Nation. Prior to the 1820’s the most widely accepted theory of the origins of Greece was the Ancient Model. In this model, primitive tribes, Pelasigians, and others

  • Basque Language.

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people of Basque Country. The Basque Language is one of the languages that is more famously known for being a non Indo-European Language in Europe. Basque has, “no known linguistic relatives and is spoken by about 720,000 people mainly in the north of Spain and the south west of France”[5]. Also known has Basque Country. Because Basque has no known linguistic relatives it is considered a language isolate. Today there are numerous dialects of Basque

  • The Neolithic Revolution: The Cradle Of Civilization

    626 Words  | 2 Pages

    response he destroys their tower and ‘confuses’ their languages; mayhaps this action is taken so that they may not have another such scheme. This is the story of the Tower of Babel. It’s name is thought to have originated from the Hebrew term “balal” which can be interpreted as to “jumble” The supposed location of the tower itself is quite interesting linguistically as it is relatively near the boundary of the northern Eurasian (Indo-European) languages and southern Arabian-African (Afroasiatic)

  • Dialect Essay In English

    1673 Words  | 4 Pages

    The english dialect is a piece of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European Family of dialects. These Indo-European dialects start from Old Norse and Saxon. English began from a combination of dialects and lingos, now called Old English : It began when the Germanic tribes landed in Britain and attacked the nation amid the fifth century AD. Prior to the Germanic attacks in Britain, Britain was populated by different Celtic tribes. These Celtic tribes were joined by traditions, religion and normal

  • Etymology

    2810 Words  | 6 Pages

    Introduction The objective of this term paper is to observe the etymology and the etymological borrowings from other languages. This paper will touch upon many borrowings from other languages such as Latin, Greek, French, Spanish and others. The etymology studies the origin and history of words, their form and meaning. More particularly, “the etymology of words means the origin of a particular word”. The etymology is the study about the word, word`s history, their meanings, how their meaning and

  • Cultural Identity and the Language of Food

    4288 Words  | 9 Pages

    Cultural Identity and the Language of Food Food is integral to cultural identity and is as much a part of culture as religion and language. Indeed, some cultures elevate food to a level nearing, if not exceeding, the status of their religion. Because I love to cook, to combine flavors in a way that results in something unexpected and wonderful, this paper will discuss various words related to food. Not actual food words, but words surrounding food. Interesting words like “gastronomy” and “feast

  • The Iranian Language

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today the Iranian languages are spoken from Central Turkey, Syria and Iraq in the west to Pakistan and the western edge of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China in the east. In the North, its outposts are Ossetic in the central Caucasus and Yaghnobi and Tajik Persian in Tajikistan in Central Asia, while in the South they are bounded by the Persian Gulf, except for the Kumzari enclave on the Masandam peninsula in Oman. Historically, the New Iranian stage overlaps with the Islamization of Iranian-speaking

  • The Importance of Language Acquisition

    1618 Words  | 4 Pages

    known, even to a person to whom the entire study of language isn't familiar, that the language is the greatest factor on which most of the human activities depend. Without any form of language, any cooperation and communication would be almost, if not totally impossible (World Book Encyclopedia 62). This significance of language is what draws scientists to study origin, differences and connections between languages. Constant change of today's languages is what amazes linguists even more. With the emergings