Welsh and Indo-European languages

What is the connection between some of the main historical languages and how is Welsh related to Bengali? Professor David Crystal explains...

Bengali and Welsh belong to the same family of languages – the Indo-European family. This family is huge – from Spanish and Portuguese in Western Europe, across Asia with Russian, and down into the Indian subcontinent with languages like Bengali.

How do we know they’re related? Because philologists worked it out. A philologist studies the history of a language. In the 18th century, one of the first, and most famous philologists was the son of a Welshman, and was called William Jones. He was a judge in Bengal and founded a society there. He was an amazing linguist and spoke over 40 languages.

He worked out the relationship between the big languages of history, like Sanskrit, Latin and Greek. Everyone thought that Sanskrit was the oldest language, and that the others came from Sanskrit. But it wasn’t like that. He said that Sanskrit, Latin and Greek are sister languages, that they came from an earlier language that perhaps no longer exists. And that language is Indo-European.

Publish date: 30 July 2007

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John
17 August 2021, 21:59
Well we know that Indo-European languages encompass most of today's European languages, wether they be from around the Mediterranean or from the frozen north. There is, however, a connection between Welsh & Greek in many aspects. For instance crossword puzzlers in Wales, when asked about the number13 know that the Greek tridekka is the same as our trideg. There are other similarities as well. According to Homer, after the fall of Troy, the Trojans were kept in Greece as slaves, they eventually revolted and escaped to Italy. They couldn't stay there as it would degrade relations with the Greeks who, at the time were the rulers of the area, before Rome rose to power. So they left in search of somewhere quiet, peaceful, they passed through the pillars of Hercules, (Gibraltar ) and eventually arrived on the island which came to be known as Britain. (From their leader Brutus.) the rest, as they is history, the Romans arrive & eventually went home, the Vikings also, the Saxons too, & finally the Normans. The Britons were squeezed into the west of the island, some even going to Brittany, but the ones left, now called the Welsh, stayed & fought. They are still here today.
Suraj k ratti
20 April 2020, 13:25
Indo sanskrit is wonderful language around from Portugal to Russia so in way I am indo indian text the email to me thank you