History of language: History of language though time

The earth has existed for 4.5 billon years. Mankind, in our form  for 50,000 years. That means most of first 4.5 billions years the earth was without words. A world without words is almost unimaginable. Try to imagine a world without language. We could not have evolved into an advanced technological society without language.  More important: without language all the dimensions of our feelings, beliefs,  joys, longings and sufferings of our souls could not be expressed.

• Without language we would be like Camus said, "gypsies on the edge of an alien world, a world that is as deaf to our music, as it is to our sorrows"

Language is what we use to reveal our conectiveness to others. Language is what we use to remind ourselves of this connection. Language allows us to share our feelings and hopes.  It frees us from our aloneness.

Have you ever been in a foreign country that you speak not a word of the language, you feel alone and I hope some excitement.  But the excitement comes from the feeling that you will explore and connect and even learn a few words of the language.  If you know a few words you will get smiles.

This is my theory, all you need is a few words to connect.  Just a few.  Then build on this.

So how did language come about and evolve? Out of a deep longing to ride ourselves of this aloneness,  and a need to survive.

Like the human race, language started in Africa. Most of this existence was pre-history. I would like to start with the most significant wave migration out of Africa.

• Current DNA theory suggests about 25,000 years about as few as 70 people, but not more than 120, crossed the Red Sea to look for food.

This is where all people from Europe, Asia and the Americas are in some way descendent from (there were subsequent waves, but we all have DNA from these humans).  This small band of humans spoke a common language. One  main branch of this group settled in a common Indo-European homeland which is now southern Russia.

 

by THOMAS V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. IVANOV

Scientific American, March 1990, P.110

 

These 'Caucasians' which settles around the Caucasian mountains in Russia,  spread out to India and Iran etc. From Ireland to India we all share the common proto-type Indo-European religion and language as our common heritage. The human race was truly one. But very quickly like the story of Babel we developed differences.

Remnants of this commonality can still be seen in our words and religion.  Some words are obvious, other are less obvious but still can be seen.  For example, the Polish word for bread is helb which is related to the English word for loaf.

 

Let's get specific.

Shown bellow are more commonalyties and  a map out the languages branches.

ENGLISH LATIN IRISH GREEK SANSKRIT RUSSIAN TIBETAN

one            oino      aon      oine        eka              odin            gcig

two            duo       da         duo        dva               dva            gnyis

brother       frater   brathair phrater bhrata     brat

night           noct-     nochd    nukt      nakta        noþe           nam

bear            fero      berid     phero     bharami       beryot         kyer
('carry')

red             ruber     ruath    erathros  rudhiras      ruda 'blood' dmar

foot            ped-       pod-      pad          peþkom      rkangpa

widow        vidua     feadhb   ephitheos vidhava     vdova        yugsamo

honey        mid        meþu     madhu       med          sbrang        rtsi

 

One Root many languages One Origin

 

Romance (Latin) Languages

Italian : Sardinian : French : Provencal : Catalonian
Spanish : Ladino : Galician : Portuguese : Romansh
Romanian : Moldavian
Latin : Oscan : Umbrian : Faliscan : Sabine : Dalmatian

Slavic Languages

Eastern Branch: Russian : Belorussian : Ukrainian :
Western Slavic Branch: Polish : Sorbian
Czech : Slovak : Slovene : Croatian :
Southern Slavic BranchSerbian
Kashubian : Bulgarian : Macedonian : Bosnian
Old Church Slavic

Celtic Languages

Welsh : Irish Gaelic : Scottish Gaelic : Breton
Cornish : Gaulish : Cumbrian : Manx : Galatian

Germanic languages

English : Dutch : Flemish : Frisian : Afrikaans
German : Yiddish : Danish : Swedish : Norwegian
Faroes : Icelandic
Anglo Saxon : Old Norse : Frankish : Gothic
Lombardo : Visigoth : Vandal

Baltic languages

Lithuanian : Latvian
Prussian

 

Hellenic Languages

Modern Greek
Mycenaean : Koine : Byzantine Greek
Classical Greek (Attic : Doric, Ionic, Aeolic)

 

Illyric LanguagesThracian Languages

Armenian
Thracian : Phrygian

Iranian Languages

Farsi : Kurdish : Pashto : Baluchi : Ossetian : Tadzhik
Persian : Avestan : Scythian

Indic Languages

Hindi : Urdu : Nepali : Bengali : Assamese : Oriya
Kashmiri : Punjabi : Sindhi : Marathi : Gujerati
Bhili : Lahnda : Maithili : Magahi
Konkani : Sinhalese : Maldivian : Romany
Sanskrit : Pali

Tokharian Languages

Albanian

Anatolian Languages

Hittite : Lydian : Lycian: Luwian : PalaicTurfanian : Kuchean

 

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