Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Enjoy this exploration to Proto-Indo-European! And start speaking a new language in 3 weeks with Babbel 🎉. Get up to 60% OFF your subscription ➡️ Here: go.babbel.com/t?bsc=usa-influ-eg-dt-1m&btp=default&utm_term=generic_v1&utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_source=YouTube&utm_campaign=robwords&utm_content=Influencer..Jul-2024..USA-TATAM..1200m60-yt-robwords-jul-2024

In this episode, we'll trace English back to its oldest known ancestor: an ancestor it shares with almost all of Europe's languages, as well as some Asian languages. That ancestor is called Proto-Indo-European.

I also talk about the controversial Nostratic language family and ask whether there could really be a "Proto-Earth" language.

📚LINKS📚
Quellant reading P-I-E: youtu.be/P78SJf8NL2k?si=cXBXvb4pVN3NYFzh
Britannica on Nostratic: britannica.com/topic/Nostratic-hypothesis
Proto-Indo-European vocabulary: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_vocabulary
Simon Pulleyn's "Secret Life of Language" is also an enjoyable read

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#English #etymology #linguistics
==CHAPTERS==
0:00 Introduction
0:17 English language family tree
0:57 What is Proto-Indo-European?
1:43 How P-I-E was discovered
5:00 Comparing Indo-European languages
7:20 Babbel
8:47 Tracing words to P-I-E
12:30 Surprisingly related words
15:45 What did P-I-E sound like?
16:55 Nostratic language
19:42 Proto-World