Big Idea #2: Repeated conquests of the British Isles changed and expanded the English language.

Therefore, we can gather from this vocabulary study that they didn’t live near salt water. The same is true of the word “sea”, most likely because they migrated to coastal areas after their inland tribes. The words for snow and cold are similar, implying that the Indo-Europeans lived in places with a moderate climate. Despite the fact that no writings exist from this language’s speakers, linguists have been able to deduce quite a bit about them by analyzing descendent languages. The Europeans eventually agreed with Jones’ hypothesis and named the parent language Indo-European. This presentation led to a new field of study and inspired European scholars to conduct their own research. He then compared those languages to Sanskrit, and found more evidence for his theory that all these languages are derived from a common parent language.Įventually, Jones presented his theory in Calcutta. Jones noticed that many languages have similar grammatical structures. And Sanskrit for the English word “birch” is bhurja.

For example, in Latin, “king” is “rex”, and in Sanskrit it’s “raja”. Jones noticed that there were many similarities between the European languages and Sanskrit. The priests had memorized certain hymns called the Vedas and were passing them down from generation to generation without understanding what they meant. Sir William Jones learned Sanskrit in India, even though it was long dead. In fact, one way to measure global connection is through words like “brother” or “sister.” They’re similar across different languages because they have a common origin in ancient times. Although we are connected in many ways, such as through language, it’s nothing new.

However, this may not be true because of the advent of technology and social media. Many people believe that the world is more connected than ever before. Big Idea #1: Many of the world’s languages can be traced back to a common ancestral language. You will find out which words are shared by Americans and Europeans. You will also learn about the names people came up with for things they had never seen before, as well as who invented the most words in English. Along the way, you’ll learn more about our culture as well.

This article takes you through the history of English and shows how these key points show how Western civilization developed over time. However, each and every word has a rich history behind it. 1-Page Summary of The Mother Tongue OverviewĮnglish is a language that we use every day, but most of us don’t think about where the words come from.

The mother tongue bryson