英语发展史及词汇来源.doc

Lexicology (Lecture Two) 2011. 9.8 Indo-European family of languages 1. The Indo-European family of languages Indo-European is the name scholars have given to the family of languages that first spread throughout Europe and many parts of southern Asia, and which are found, as a result of colonialism, in every part of the world. 2. Origin of the language family The precise origins of the language family are still a matter of some controversy, but the consensus view is that it came on the scene around 8000 years ago in the general area to the north of the Black Sea. Since then, it has split up into a large number of subgroups, which today provide nearly all the languages of Europe and have also spread over large areas of the Middle East and northern India. 3. Groups in the language family Among them are: the Indo-Iranian languages, including Hindi and ancient Sanskrit; the Slavic Languages-Russian, Polish and so on; the Celtic Languages, such as Welsh, and Breton; Hellenic, which then developed into Greek. Italic, from which Latin, and later the Romance languages developed. Germanic, which had three Branches: North Germanic, East Germanic, and West Germanic. The North Germanic branch is the linguistic ancestor of modern Scandinavian languages, viz. Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic. The East Germanic branch developed into Gothic, but it eventually died out. The West Germanic branch in turn developed into modern German, Dutch, Frisian, and English. Not all European languages are originally from Indo-European. Hungarian, Estonian, and Finnish belong to the language family called Finno-Ugric. the Development of the English Language The history of the English language can be divided into three main periods: old English, middle English and Modern English. The invasion of the Germanic tribes, Norman Conquest and the Renaissance Movement are the most important events in the history of the language, each marks the