in reply to Re: The Germanic language form
in thread The Germanic language form

I'm sorry, this is way off-topic, but I just can't let so many misconceptions go unremarked:

It all started with sanskrit

No it didn't. Sanskrit is one of the earliest known Indo-European languages, but this does not mean that it was the ancestor of them all.

Celtic was not an Indo-European language

Yes it was (and still is).

Finnish (...) can be said to be lying the other side of the great Indo-European vs. Slavonic language divide

Huh? The Slavonic languages are Indo-European!

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Re^3: The Germanic language form
by Moron (Curate) on Jun 01, 2007 at 12:10 UTC
    When looking for other references in regard to your first point, I only found support for the idea that Sanskrit is the ancestor of English, in particular, this article, which describes the history and proof of the proposition. However, your 2nd and 3rd points do check out and I have updated my post accordingly, thanks! __________________________________________________________________________________

    ^M Free your mind!

[reply]
      I only found support for the idea that Sanskrit is the ancestor of English

      That's strange. See, for example, the wikipedia article on the 'Out of India theory', which clearly states that 'This theory is deprecated in mainstream scholarship'.

      Update: I found that there is actually a wikipedia article about The Adventure of English, the TV series upon which Lord Bragg's book (which you cite as your source above) was based. Here's an extract:

      Critics of the programme have pointed out that it contains factual errors: for example, it asserts unequivocally that the Indo-European languages stem originally from India
[reply]
        Aha, but I never said Sanskrit originated in India, did I!

        I studied your link and find (so far) as follows: The more recent hypothesis A) that the Indo-European civilisation began in Kurgistan 7000 years ago instead of in India, irrespecive of whether that civilisation spoke Sanskrit or not at whatever period in history offers neither support nor counter-argument to the hypothesis B) that Sanskrit is the origin of English and so A irrelevant to B.

        To put it another way Sanskrit is indeed the classical language of India, the objections you raise (or should I say link to) are only relevant to whether or not it originated in India but are not relevant to whether or not Sanskrit is the origin of English.

        __________________________________________________________________________________

        ^M Free your mind!

[reply]

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