Characteristics of Proto Indo European and Proto Germanic

 

Characteristics of Proto Indo European

 

1.       PIE was a highly inflected language and hence word order was not important. Change of word order did not result in change of meaning.

2.       PIE had 8 cases- Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Possessive (Genitive), Instrumental, Ablative, Vocative and Locative.

3.       In PIE, nouns had three numbers- Singular, Dual and Plural. There were separate inflections for the three numbers.

4.       In PIE, there was no single set of case inflections used for all nouns alike, but several different sets, some nouns following one pattern and other another. That is, there were various declensions of nouns.

5.       Adjectives were also inflected in PIE and had to be put in the same case and number as the noun they were attached to. Moreover, the adjectives had different inflections for different genders and had to agree with the noun in gender. The adjective inflections had been essentially the same as noun inflections.

6.       PIE had a whole series of strong verbs- verbs which showed change of tense by changing the vowel of the stem. There were no weak verbs.

7.       PIE had a system of case inflections for pronouns and articles. There were pronouns of the first, second and third persons.

8.       In PIE, the stress could fall on any syllable. It had free accent.

9.       PIE was pitch-based.

10.   Vocabulary: The Indo-Europeans, before their dispersal, were a nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoral people.

 

Common Words for:-	No common words for:-
Cattle, Sheep, Dog, Pig, Goat, Goose	Ass
Cheese, Butter	Milk
Grain (no large common vocabulary has survived from agriculture)
Hunting and Fishing
Tools and Weapons like  “arrows”
Metals: Copper, Bronze, Gold, Silver
Words connected with pottery and weaving
House, Door	Window
Rain, Snow
Wild animals: Elephant, Lion, Tiger, Camel
River and Stream	Sea and Ocean
Ship
Family Relationships

 

 

 

 

 

Characteristics of Proto-Germanic

 

1.       Proto-Germanic was a highly inflected language and hence word order was not important, change of word order did not result in change of meaning.

2.       PG had only five cases- Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative and Instrumental.

3.       In PG, all nouns had grammatical gender. Every noun had to be wither masculine, feminine or neuter. Grammatical gender had no necessary connection with sex. So the names of inanimate objects could be masculine or feminine and the nouns of sexed creatures could be neuter.

Eg: daswaib (the girl)- neuter

      Die polizer (the police)- feminine

4.       In PG, there were only singular and plural numbers. The dual number was dropped.

5.       As in PIE, in PG there were different declensions of nouns.

6.       In PG, there developed two of the adjective forms- the strong form and the weak form.

Eg: gōd mann- good man (strong form)

      Se gōda mann- the good man (weak form)

The strong form was used when the adjective was not preceded by anything. The weak form was used when the adjective was preceded by articles, demonstrations and possessives.

7.       PG had two classes of verbs-strong and weak. Strong verbs indicate a change in the tense by a change in the vowel. For eg: sing-sang-sung. Weak verbs indicate change of tense by adding inflections like ‘ed’, ‘d’, ‘t’.

8.       In PG, verbs had only two tense forms- the past and the present. Within these two tenses however, PG had different endings for different persons.

9.       PG was stress based. Stress usually fell on the initial syllable. As a result, the syllables at the end of words tended to become weak and this accounts for the reduction and loss of inflections in English.

10.   Vocabulary: Some of the vocabulary of PG is peculiar to it since it is not paralleled in other Indo-European languages.

·         Words related to ships and sea-faring: ship, sail, boat, keel, sheet, sea

·         Borrowed words from the Celts- Iron and Lead

·         Borrowed words from the Romans- words related to war, trade, building, horticulture and food. Words like wall, tile, chalk, mill and pit. Words for fruits like apple, plum, and pear.

·         Borrowed from Latin- pound, mile, cheap, kitchen, pepper, peas, mint, kettle, dish.