Topic # 2: The Indo- European Languages.

The Germanic branch of the Indo- European

Languages. The Position of English.
The human metaphor
The human metaphor is a concept of the human mind. It helps us to explain events
based on human experience and get an idea of the complexity of evolution. There is a
tendency to explain how languages evolve by using metaphor about human families.
E.g. If we see language as family we will be able to associate things; explain and
understand complex concepts.
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Parent language, ancestor: Indo-European

Daughter language: Spanish, English

Indo-European Languages
Most of the ancient and modern languages of Europe belong to a family of languages
which is called by modern scholars "Indo-European". It was first noticed by Sir William
Jones, an Anglo-Welsh philologist in the late l8th century. He was the first to voice that
most of the languages of Europe showed a strong resemblance to each other in basic
vocabulary. In the early l9th century Franz Bopp, the Grimm Brothers and other
researchers pointed to a great explosion of populations after the last glacial period when
successive waves of peoples poured out of an original area north of the Black Sea and
west of the Caspian. One group went south into Persia and India, some went west across
Europe, following each other and producing what would later become the Greek, Italic
(including Latin), Celtic, Germanic, and to the north, Baltic and Slavic speaking
populations. These peoples were called Indo-Europeans and there are a lot of theories
about their existence. The traditional view states that the Indo-Europeans were a kind of
semi-nomadic people who invaded neighbouring agricultural or urban areas and
imposed their language on them. They were related to agriculture, domestication of

horses, cattle, sheep, and goats. There is no writing to show the language they spoke,
but probably they shared a common language that later evolved giving rise to different
families of languages. In general terms it was a highly developed language because of
the development of too many inflections, in the way it was developed it became highly
developed as well as highly sophisticated.
The evolution of Indo-European languages can be explained through two major
linguistics phenomena: divergence and convergence. The former is the responsible of
language multiplication while the latter deals with the lost of language.
Danube and Volgas dialects constitute a good example of divergence. In ancient times
these two tribes used to speak a very similar language. Because of migration they got so
much apart that the common features they shared started to change, new vocabulary
entered the system; new dialects appeared, dialects that time later became new and
totally different languages. A language evolved into separate dialects and then into
incomprehensible daughter languages.
Convergence on the other hand explains the process in which a language disappears.
Oscan and Umbrian constitute an example. In ancient times Rome was a cultural
reference, prominent not only for its power but also because of a highly sophisticated
society. Latin was a very prestigious language, because it was the language spoken in
Rome. People gave up speaking Umbrian and Oscan and started to speak the most
powerful language: Latin. The other languages died out with the time.

A standard variety

Greece: Attic, Doric, Greek proper

Athens became the most important city not only from the military point of view but also
linguistically and culturally speaking. The language, Greek proper, became highly
prestigious, so prestigious that soon it became a standard variety. Attic and Doric were
still spoken but Greek proper was considered the most important one. Time later Athens
lost its hegemony but its language survived the life of its speakers: a koin. Greek
became a Koin, a standard that survives any circumstances.
Satem and Centum languages
Many scholars classify the Indo-European sub-branches into a Satem group and a
Centum group. This terminology comes from the varying treatments of the three
original velar rows.
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Eastern languages belong in the Satem group: Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic.

Western languages represent the Centum group: Germanic, Italic, and Celtic.

Differences between these two languages

Palatal

Alveolar

] ------ [

] ------ [

This explains the origin of the words ciento and hundred.

One feature of the Indo-European languages is that there are plenty of words (cognates)
we can find across the Indo-European family languages. There is a clear conexion
among languages. Indo-Europeans scattered all over the world so indo-European
languages sound so much alike.
E.g. father (English); fatta (German); Pre (French); Padre (Spanish)
Numerals are also cognates in IE languages.
E.g.

One, Two, Three

Differences between Germanic and other Indo-European languages.

What features set Germanic apart from other Indo-European languages?
Differences between English and Spanish
The major changes from IE into Germanic:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Germanic words with no cognates in other IE languages.

Tense and Aspect of the verb.
Past tense with dental suffix in Germanic.
Declension of the adjectives in Germanic.
Accentual or Stress system (the way words are stressed. In Germanic languages
there is a tendency to stress the 1 st syllable but in Spanish and almost all IE

languages is the other way around).

6. The sound shift affecting the plosive sounds.
1. No cognates in Germanic languages:
There are words in Germanic that are not found outside the Germanic family
(there are words in English we do not find in other Indo-European languages).
There are two porssibilities to explain this fact. Firts of all it may have happened
that Germanic people came into contact and probably borrowed words from

non-Indo-European language tribes or the second possibility that Germanic

peole may have lived in other conditions that other Indo-European tribes did not
experience.
E.g. wife, meat, broad
2. Tense and aspect of the verb
If compared verb system in English and Spanish we will notice many differences
regarding suffixes. Spanish is a highly inflective language, full of endings and
with a subjunctive mood to express probability. English, on the contrary, lacks of
inflections. It can be described as a pausitive language that only presents two
inflections for tenses: Present and Passt (not for future) and lacks subjunctive
mood. There are few expressions where subjunctive mood is used, but those are
fossilized phrases from the past. What actually matters in present day English is
modality. Modal verbs are used to describe things, events but have nothing to do
with tenses. Spanish verb system is exactly the same as all Indo-European
languages, rich and complex. English, on the contrary, resembles Germanic verb
system.
3. Past tense with dental suffix in Germanic
In most Indo-European languages we find changes in tense. In English language
there are different kinds of verbs: e.g. know- knew- known and verbs as loveloved- loved; ask asked; want- wanted. Those suffixes were dental sounds in
prehistoric Germanic. It ocurred in Germanic but not other IE languages. In
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English language there are two kinds of verbs: strong and weak.
Strong verbs are those which differenciate the past from the present by means of
a change in a vowel. E.g rise rose. These are also called primary verbs simply
because the verb action ocurred first in the language, the verb action comes
before the nominal action. E.g rise (v) the rise (n).

Weak or secondary verbs: they are so called weak because they make the past
tense by adding a suffix ed and because they are a derivation of the nominal
action. The verb comes from the noun. Eg. Love (n) ------ love (v).
There are not irregular verbs in English as there are not irregular verbs in
Germanic language. There is ablaut: a change in the vowel from the present to
the past. This is a common feature in Germanic languages, particular to
Germanic and no other IE languages.

4. Declension of Adjectives.
In Germanic there were two declensions for adjectives: strong and weak
declensions. In Old English there was possible to use a noun with general
reference or a particular one just by using the right endings. There was no need
for relative clause. It was possible because of the great amount of endings,
inflections for gender: feminine, masculine, neutral etc. In Modern English,
however, we need a relative clause to make a specific reference Eg. The young
people I know. The problem is that all inflections were gone and English needed
other devices to express these declensions. In other Germanic languages, the use
of relative clauses is not necessary but English has lost all these features
adquired from Germanic system.
5. Accentual or stress system
In Spanish there are different ways of stressing words. It has a free stress
system. Actually in most of IE languages stress is frequently free. But there is a
branch of the IE languagesthta shows a rigid, fixed system: Germanic language.
In English there is a tendency to stress the first syllable; even in borrowings the
tendency is to stress the first syllable. Eg. Garage (French) Garage (English)
Variability in IE languages regarding stress
There are two main differences in IE and Germanic languages regarding stress.

The first one has to do with the flexibility of the system. IE languages show a
variable, free stress system while the Germanic sub-branch shows the opposite: a
fixed, rigid system.
The second one is related to pronunciation. Indo-European syllables ar not so
prominent, so emphasized. Despites there is a prominent syllable, you can still
hear the others. Germanic language, on the other hand, is highly prominent. The
strong syllable is so strong that the other is scarcely perceived.
Consequences of Stress System
1. Weakening of unstressed syllables
E.g. Minster vs Monastery (Monasterium)
Minster is an early borrowing. It evolved and changed influenced by stress
changes. On the contrary monastery is a much much later word from XVII
century. English stress was not able to change or erase any syllable.
IE: bheronom

Gr: beranan

OE: beran

EME: beren

ME: bere

EModE: bear

[bea] to bear [tu bea]

(Words undergo changes)
There was a second consequence with a far more reaching impact:
2. Loss of inflections
Inflections are usually placed at the end. If the final syllable is the first one to
disappear, inflections are going to disappear as well. This happens not only in English
but all Germanic languages. This loss of inflections explains why Spanish and English
are so different regarding grammar.
2.1 Word order
In Spanish we move words backwards and forwards, put words in awkward
places and still the sentence will make sense. In English it is not possible; words
have lost all inflections and consequently flexibility, so it became absolutely
fixed.
2.2 Prepositions

Spanish preposition system is much easier than English. When all inflections
disappeared prepositions became more and more complex and important. All
those meanings, nuances meanings were taking on by prepositions. It is over
simplistic to believe that in Old English there were not prepositions. There were
many, but their use was more restricted because inflections kept all grammatical
information.
2.3 Modality
It has to do with the way speakers look at the verb action and the way listeners
perceive the verb action. Reality may be interpreted, so speakers may look at it
in different ways such as possibility, conditionality etc. Modality is expressed
differently in Spanish and English. The former has a device which is basically
the Subjunctive mood used to express possibility. The latter, on the other hand,
has not Subjunctive mood apart from those fossilized expressions as: God save
the Queen, If I were you. Here Modality is expressed through the use of
Modal verbs.

6. The first consonant shift

Plosives in Indo-European languages remain unchanged but in Germanic
languages there was a shift usually known as the first consonant shift where
plosive consonants were affected.
1 IE [ p, t, k ]
Voiceless plosive sounds

Gr [

2 IE [ b, d, g ]

Gr [ p, t, k ]

Voiced plosive sounds

Voiceless plosive sounds

3 IE [ b, d, g ]

Examples
IE: *bhrater

L: frater

E: brother

IE: *pisk

L: piscis

E: fish

IE: *dent

L: dentis

E: tooth

IE: *kord

L: cordus

E: heart

IE: *ten

L: tenuis

E: thin

Gr [ b, d, g ]