[KarlInOhio]

Why was European civilization the only civilization on earth to invent comparative linguistics? It is interesting to ponder why nobody had made this connection before.

To be able to reach this conclusion you need a minimum level of travel to be able to get knowledge of a lot of languages. Just knowing two or three isn't enough. You probably need at least some knowledge of a dozen or two before you can start seeing links. Preferably you have access to older versions of languages. You can see the links more by comparing Old English to Old German than you can with the modern languages. You also need the ability to distribute information so many people can see copies of it - that means you need printing presses. It probably wasn't until the 18th century that anyone could put the necessary parts together and it was Western Europe that was on top at the time.

[SunkenCiv]

Great post.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Many scholars had hinted at a common ancestor for modern languages.

[T]he discovery of the genetic relationship of the whole family of Indo-European languages is often attributed to Sir William Jones, a British judge in India who in a 1786 lecture (published 1788) observed that

"The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists."

in his 1786 The Sanscrit Language postulating a proto-language uniting six branches - Sanskrit (i.e. Indo-Aryan), Persian (i.e. Iranian), Greek, Latin, Germanic and Celtic.

[twigs]

An excellent and informative post. Thank you very much.