#indo european languages

[tower-of-hana]

Indo-Europeans be like what do you mean you can't conjugate this verb? It's a regular i-stem verb of the ua subclass of the eu sub-sub class of the ye sub-sub-subclass that nazalizes, palatalizes, and undergoes anywhere from 17 to 30 different forms of umlaut simultaneously depending on what conjugation you're using and gets replaced with a completely different verb when it's passivized!

[mapsontheweb]

A more accurate/detailed map of Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages in Europe

[loki-was-framed]

Today's Old Norse Word in English:

loft

noun

a large, usually unpartitioned floor over a factory, warehouse, or other commercial or industrial space; such a floor converted into an apartment or artist's studio.

Old Norse: lopt, air, sky; upper room.

Note: Lopt is also another name for the Norse god Loki, which is why he's sometimes called "Skywalker" or "Sky Traveler."

[lukaszmichal]

My Indo-European ass pronouncing Semitic emphatic consonants as retroflex

[indo-europeans]

The first letter change from 'a' to 'i' in the words Andra to Indra and Aryan to Iran is a common phenomenon in Indo-Iranian languages called "Satemization." Satemization refers to the shift in pronunciation of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) velar consonants (/k/, /g/, and /gʰ/) to palatal or postalveolar sounds (/s/, /ʃ/, and /ʒ/) in the Indo-Iranian branch of the language family. This change occurred in the Indo-Iranian language branch around 1500 BCE, which led to the development of the satem languages (such as Sanskrit and Persian) from the earlier centum languages (such as Latin and Greek).

[yvanspijk]

Sí, oui, òc!

Italian sì, Spanish sí, Portuguese sim and many more Romance words for 'yes' come from Latin sīc, which meant 'so; thus; like that'. In Popular Latin it got an extra meaning: 'yes', born out of the sense 'like that', i.e. 'like you said'.

French oui has a completely different origin. It comes from Old French oïl, a univerbation of o il, literally 'yes, it (is/does/has etc.)'.

O stemmed from Latin hoc (this), which became òc (yes) in Occitan, a group of languages whose name was derived from this very word.

[canisalbus]

I want you to know that your art is very important to me, and I'm very invested in all of the characters I have seen from you. Also, the discussion about Finnish and other languages having gendered words or not has been the last little push to get me to start learning Finnish which I think is fun.

I'm making this a little compilation post of all the language asks I got. Thank you for sharing, this was genuinely really interesting!

[renegade-hierophant]

Sanskrit and Greek cognates

mind - मनस् (mánas) - μένος (ménos) great, big - मह (mahá) - μέγας (mégas) knee - जानु (jānu) - γόνυ (gónu) boat - नौ (naú) - ναῦς (naûs) water - उदन् (udán) - ὕδωρ (húdōr) winter, cold - हिम (himá) - χεῖμα (kheîma) a field - अज्र (ájra) - ἀγρός (agrós) house - दम (dáma) - δόμος (dómos) night - नक्ति (nákti) - νύξ (núx) a foot - पद् (pád) - πούς (poús) mouse - मूष् (mūṣ) - μῦς (mûs) reward - मीढ (mīḍhá) - μισθός (misthós) donor - दातृ (dātṛ) - δώτωρ (dōtōr) lady - पत्नी (pátnī) - πότνια (pótnia) star - स्तृ (stṛ) - ἀστήρ (astēr) sleep - स्वप्न (svápna) - ὕπνος (húpnos) a month - मास् (mās) - μείς (meís) man - नर (nara) - ἀνήρ (anēr) name - नामन् (nāman) - ὄνομα (ónoma) door - दुर् (dúr) - θύρα (thúra) a fox - लोपाश (lopāśá) - ἀλώπηξ (alōpex) a bend - अङ्कस् (áṅkas) - ἄγκος (ánkos) bone - अस्थि (ásthi) - ὀστέον (ostéon) intestine - अन्त्र (ántra) - ἔντερον (énteron) a reproach - निन्दा (nindā) - ὄνειδος (óneidos) ray - अक्तु (aktú) - ἀκτίς (aktís) flesh - क्रविस् (kravís) - κρέας (kréas) to bite - दशति (dáśati) - δάκνω (dáknō) to tame - दाम्यति (dāmyati) - δάμνημι (dámnēmi) lifetime - आयु (āyu) - αἰών (aiōn) power - क्रतु (krátu) - κράτος (krátos) old - जरत् (járat) - γέρων (gérōn) a yoke - युग (yugá) - ζυγόν (zugón) wood, tree - दारु (dāru) - δρῦς (drũs) stick, tree - दण्ड (daṇḍá) - δένδρον (déndron) root, herb - मूल (mūla) - μῶλυ (mõlu) flower, leaf - फुल्ल (phúlla) - φύλλον (phúllon) fat, ointment - लेप (lépa) - λίπος (lípos) dust, particle - कण (káṇa) - κόνις (kónis)

[linguisticdiscovery]

Tocharian

Around 3,000 BCE, speakers of an early branch of the Indo-European languages decided to go for a little hike, and wound up all the way in South Siberia.

A few thousand years later, scholars discovered manuscripts in northwestern China dating to 500–800 CE that were shown conclusively to be written in a language from an early branch of Indo-European. They named this language Tocharian.

The discovery of Tocharian upset decades of research on ancient Indo-European languages and revitalized interested in them for two reasons:

Nobody even suspected that another branch of Indo-European existed, let alone in China’s Tarim Basin.

It was previously thought that the Indo-European languages were divided into eastern and western groups, based on whether the /k/ sound had changed to an /s/. The western languages that retained the /k/ were called centum languages (the Latin word for ‘hundred’, pronounced with an initial /k/), while the eastern languages with /s/ were called satem languages (the Avestan word for ‘hundred’). Yet Tocharian was a centum language sitting further east than almost any other language in the family. (Linguists later hypothesized that the centum-satem split wasn’t so much an east-west split as it was a spread of /s/ from the center of the language family outward, a change which didn’t reach the furthest members of the family).

Tocharian was written in a variant of Brahmi; here’s a sample of Tocharian script on a wooden tablet:

If you really want to challenge yourself, here’s a problem about Tocharian from the International Linguistics Olympiad:

[blackcrowing]

Review of The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. Anthony

I will be upfront, it is a very technical book. If you are not well versed in the anthropological categorizing of cultures and time periods of the areas being discussed it can be very difficult to keep up with the more finite points the author is making. That being said, I had never heard of any of the specific cultures being discussed in the Danube Valley and was still able to enjoy this book and its well put together analysis of various aspects of language, culture, technological developments and shifts in behaviors and place.

If you are especially interested in any of the major themes this book discusses (which is in all honesty is an extensive list including but not limited to; the development of Indo-European language, the time periods and locations as well as likely motivation for domestication of various livestock types, the cultural effects of technological developments on the peoples of the Eurasian Steppes and their migration/trading patterns) I do highly recommend. It is heavy reading but extremely illuminating.

[victusinveritas]

Starkey comics: I've made a giant tree of Indo-European languages! 🌳🌸

Actually this was just intended a template with which I plan to make a bunch of images about related words in these languages, so stay tuned for that. And I'll probably put a HD version of this image on my site soon too.

This image shows 64 living Indo-European languages (around the outside), as well as many dead and extinct languages.

Moving into the image from the outside we travel back in time, until we reach the core of the image, wherein lies Proto-Indo-European. PIE was spoken somewhere around the border of Europe and Asia, and diverged into the 10 inner Proto languages shown here 4500+ years ago.

There are about 380 Indo-European languages missing from this image, although I've tried to pick representatives from as many branches as possible. The Indo-Iranian branch is the largest, actually accounting for around 2 thirds of Indo-European languages.

-⭐🗝️

[tower-of-hana]

You can break whatever rules you want to on twitter as long as you do it in Tocharian

[mapsontheweb]

Indoeuropean languages in Europe

Historical Roots: The Indo-European language family is believed to have originated in the Eurasian Steppe around 4000-2500 BCE. From there, groups of speakers migrated to various parts of Europe, contributing to the linguistic diversity of the continent.

by hunmapper

Language Diversification: Indo-European languages in Europe have evolved into numerous branches and sub-branches. Some of the major branches include:

Romance Languages: Descendants of Latin, including French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian.

Germanic Languages: Including English, German, Dutch, Swedish, and others. Slavic Languages: Such as Russian, Polish, Czech, and Bulgarian. Celtic Languages: Including Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh. Hellenic Languages: Mainly Greek. Baltic Languages: Such as Lithuanian and Latvian. Indo-Iranian Languages: Including Hindi, Bengali, and Persian. Cultural Significance: Indo-European languages have played a pivotal role in shaping European culture, history, and literature. Greek and Latin, for instance, have had a profound influence on science, philosophy, and the development of the Roman Empire.

Language Revival: Some Indo-European languages in Europe, such as Irish and Welsh, have experienced language revival efforts in recent decades. These efforts aim to preserve and revitalize languages that were declining in usage.

Language Contact: Due to centuries of contact and migration, many Indo-European languages have borrowed words and phrases from each other. This phenomenon, known as linguistic borrowing, has enriched the vocabulary and expressions of these languages.

[loki-was-framed]

Today's Old Norse Word in English:

ransack

verb

To search thoroughly; to plunder or pillage.

Old Norse: rannsaka, to search a house.

[lukaszmichal]

If the Sanskrit word मन्त्र (mantra) had a regular cognate in Polish, it would be

✨międło✨

and I pity all you Polish non-speakers who cannot fully experience the delightful goofiness of how it sounds

[rotzaprachim]

there is no such thing as either “ a European language” or “European phonology” as a linguistic category btw. Europe is a physical entity but also a constructed idea with indefinite boarders; it is not a linguistic category