陈思露英语语言史.ppt

Welcome This part covers 5 sections 1、Balto – Slavic 2、Germanic 3、Celtic 4、Twentieth-century Discoveries 5、The Home of the Indo-Europeans Balto – Slavic The Balto-Slavic branch covers a vast area in the eastern part of Europe. It falls into two groups, the Baltic and the Slavic. Balto-Slavic: Baltic: Prussian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Slavic: East Slavic :Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian West Slavic :Polish, Czech, Slovak, Sorbian South Slavic :Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian ,Slovene, modern Macedonian  Focus: The position of Lithuanian in Indo-European languages Lithuanian is spoken by about three million people in the Baltic state of Lithuania. It is important among the Indo-European languages because of its conservatism. It is sometimes said that a Lithuanian peasant can understand certain simple phrases in Sanskrit. Although the statement implies too much, Lithuanian preserves some very old features that have disappeared from practically all the other languages of the family.  Germanic The common form that the languages of the Germanic branch had before they became differentiated is known as Germanic or Proto-Germanic. The languages descended from Proto-Germanic fall into three groups: East Germanic, North Germanic, and West Germanic. East Germanic: The principal language of East Germanic is Gothic. By the third century the Goths had spread from the Vistula to the shore of the Black Sea and in the following century they were Christianized by a missionary named Ulfilas . North Germanic: Swedish ,Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic. West Germanic is of chief interest to us as the group to which English belongs. It is divided into two branches, High and Low German, by the operation of a Second (or High German) Sound-Shift analogous to that described above as Grimm’s Law.  Why is Old English classified as Low (West) German language?  Celtic The Celtic languages formed at one time one of the most extensive groups