THE FIRST KNOWN LANGUAGE

WHERE DO THE LANGUAGES COME FROM?

Today we can find languages that have very similar or even the same words to refer to the same thing, this is not mere coincidence, since modern languages descend from a common language. Do you know where languages like Spanish come from? Or english? In this post we are going to see where some of the most widely spoken languages in the world come from , as well as some curiosities about the language from which some 150 of the best known languages emerged today.

THE PREDECESSOR OF MODERN LANGUAGES

The Indo-European language is the predecessor of modern languages, it is known by that name for the area in which it was spoken , since it ranged from India to Europe. This is supposed to be the language from which modern languages emerged, not all of them, but some of the best known.

To reach this conclusion, some linguists from the University of California, Berkeley, did a study taking more than 150 languages to specify that this Indo-European language arose about 5,500 - 6,500 years ago, between Ukraine, Moldova, Russia and Kazakhstan. This study consisted of taking about 200 sets of words from living and dead languages, and creating a model to analyze how fast their evolution was, which coincides with the expansion of livestock , which began in that region.

THE ROOTS OF MODERN LANGUAGES

In the following image you will find the genealogical tree of the languages that we know today. This image was created by the illustrator Minna Sundberg, who made this illustration by adjusting the size of the branches and leaves according to the number of speakers of that language.

As we can see, Spanish is a Romance language, like Italian, French or Portuguese, while German or English are Germanic languages. 

LA PRIMERA LENGUA
Family tree of languages, made by Minna Sundberg

Leave a Comment

en_USEnglish