A TO Z Literary Principles from History of English Literature: Note 25 (Indo-European Language Family)

A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers

 Indo-European Language Family

1.Indo-European Language Family is the most widely spoken family of languages in the world covering more or less 1.6 billion speakers. 

2.No written records or solid archaeological evidence of the Indo-European tribe.

3.Indo-European Language Family: Comparative Languages: Albanian, Armenian, Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Greek, Indo-Iranian, Italic (including the Romance languages), Slavic, and two extinct subfamilies, Anatolian (including Hittite) and Tocharian.)

4. Indo-European Language Family: People living between Black and Caspian Seas.

5. Migration: prevalent hypothesis: a large group of Indo-Europeans migrated from east-central Europe eastward toward the region of the Caspian Sea before 3000 bc.

 6. Beginning shortly after 2000 bc, the Indo-European people known as the Hittites crossed into Asia Minor from Europe through the Bosporus region, and at about the same time the bulk of the Indo-Europeans in the Caspian Sea area turned southward.

7. The ancestors of the Hindus (see Hinduism) went southeastward into Punjab, in northwestern India, and along the banks of the Indus and Ganges rivers.

8. The Kassites went south into Babylonia, and the Mitanni of northern Mesopotamia went southwestward into the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and other parts of the region between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea known as the Fertile Crescent.

9.  About 4000BC: Spoke Indo-European Language.

10. By 2000BC: they were in India, Greece, and Turkey, speaking different Languages.

11. By 2000 bc: Greek, Hittite, and Sanskrit were distinct languages, but the differences among them are such that the original tongue must have been fairly unified about a millennium earlier, or about 3000 bc.

12. By 500BC: there was a separate Germanic group in northern Europe.

13. Indo-European Domestic Animals: Dogs, Cattle (measure of wealth), Sheep, Horses. No cats, though. Cat is from Egypt.

14. Indo-European Social Structure: Father as head of family

15. Indo-European Religion: Right is good (dexter), left is bad(sinister).• Tripartition --- division into threes. Horse sacrifice

16. By 449 AD: Germanic tribes invade Britain, defeating Celts who lived there. This is the beginning of Old English.

17. By 1066 AD: Battle of Hastings. French speakers from Normandy conquer Britain.

 18. 1066 AD is the beginning of Middle English.

19. French-speaking Normans conquered Britain.

20. French-speaking aristocracy, government, church installed.

21. Huge influx of French words into English, especially words for institutions, nobility, etc.

22. By1450-1550 AD: The Great Vowel Shift. This is the beginning of Modern English.

23.  Comparative Ideas: comparative linguistics, Grimm's Law, Verner's Law.

24. History of Indo-European Language Family Studies: the beginning of the 19th century: European scholars studying Sanskrit noted its resemblance in vocabulary to Latin and Greek. An Indo-European parent language was soon established.

25. Scholars who attempted to tie various Indo-European Language Family Studies: German-born British scholar Max Müller.

26. The Worthy Text: the Rig-Veda of ancient India—the oldest preserved body of literature written in an Indo-European language—reflected the earliest stages of an Indo-European mythology. 

 

Ardhendu De

Ref: 1. History of English Literature- Albert, 

      2. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature

       3. Microsoft Student Encerta

       4. Wikipedia