Re: Indo-European Studies

S.D. Barnes (sept@polaris.net)
7 Jul 1995 11:30:54 -0400

Virendra Verma (verma@awecim.enet.dec.com) wrote:
(denial of Indo-European descent of Sanskrit deleted)

: This logic is based on false premise. Sanskrit is much older than
: any languages of Europe. In fact, Europe is only 6000 years old
: and Sanskrit is much older than that. Rig veda is supposed to be
: composed around 6500 BC!!!!

: Some European languages may have been derived from Sanskrit, but
: the origin of Sanskrit lies in India.

Here let me demonstrate how Sanskrit is in the Indo-European family of
languages:

Indo-European(not European)
|
|
Centum Langs.________________________ Satem Langs.
| |
| |
Celtic_______Italic_________Hellenic_______Anatolian_______Hittite |
| | | | | |
Gaelic | Oscan Doric Tochrarian |
Britannic | Umbrian Aeolic |
Gallic | Latin Ionic Attic |
| | | | |
(various | (Romance Greek (from |
forms of | language Ionic Attic) |
Irish, | branches |
Scots, | French, |
and | Spanish, |
Welsh) | etc.) Balto-Slavic___Armenian___Albanian___Indo-Iranian
| | |
| | |
Germanic Baltic________Slavic Iranic____________Indic
| | | | |
West___North___East Old Prussian | Avestan____O.Iranian |
| | | Lettish | | |
English Danish Gothic Lithuanian | Persian Vedic
German Norweg. Vandal | |
and and Burgund. | |
others others | *SANSKRIT*
West___South_____East |
| | | |
Polish Serbo- Russian Prakrits
and Croatian and Hindi
others and others and
others others

(any errors are my own copying errors)
Source:Problems in the Origins and Development of the English Language,
2d ed. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Inc.1972{

This chart simply shows the branches, not the time periods when the languages
matured into their present or final forms.

S.D. Barnes