Proto-Indo-European language: Difference between revisions
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===Noun cases=== | ===Noun cases=== | ||
Proto-Indo-European had eight noun cases (''see'' '''[[Grammatical case]]'''). | Proto-Indo-European had eight noun cases (''see'' '''[[Grammatical case]]'''). | ||
*Of the nouns, there were three [[ | *Of the nouns, there were three [[grammatical number]]s, [[Singular number|singular]], [[Dual number|dual]], and [[Pural number|plural]]; the dual referred to two of anything (as with Arabic) or a natural pair (as with gloves, shoes or eyeglasses, or a pair of jeans) as with [[Hebrew]]. And a few languages have a [[Trial number|trial]], which refers to three of something. | ||
==Sources== | ==Sources== | ||
* ''Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture'', edited by James P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams; Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997; "Proto-Indo-European", pp. 458-470. | * ''Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture'', edited by James P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams; Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997; "Proto-Indo-European", pp. 458-470. | ||
Revision as of 01:26, 3 December 2008
Proto-Indo-European is a reconstructed language believed to represent the ancestral language from which all members of the Indo-European family of languages descend. Indo-European languages include the West Germanic, North Germanic, and Romance languages, as well as Latin, Greek and Sanskrit.
The first person to recognize the relationships between Indo-European languages (based on comparison of Greek, Latin and Sanskrit) was Sir William Jones in 1786. This article will discuss the characteristics of the reconstructed language.
- For the science that allows us to reconstruct such a language see Historical linguistics
- For a discussion of Proto-Indo-European ethnicity, see Proto-Indo-Europeans
- For a discussion of where these people originated, see ---
Grammar
Noun cases
Proto-Indo-European had eight noun cases (see Grammatical case).
- Of the nouns, there were three grammatical numbers, singular, dual, and plural; the dual referred to two of anything (as with Arabic) or a natural pair (as with gloves, shoes or eyeglasses, or a pair of jeans) as with Hebrew. And a few languages have a trial, which refers to three of something.
Sources
- Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, edited by James P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams; Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997; "Proto-Indo-European", pp. 458-470.