[CarrotAndStick]

The first systematic theory of the relationships between human languages began when Sir William Jones, "Oriental Jones," proposed in 1786 that Greek and Latin, the classical languages of Europe, and Sanskrit, the classical language of India, had all descended from a common source. The evidence for this came from both the structure of the languages -- Sanskrit grammar has similarities to Greek and to nothing else -- and the vocabulary of the languages. Thus, "father" in English compares to "Vater" in German, "pater" in Latin, "patêr" in Greek, "pitr." in Sanskrit, "pedar" in Persian, etc. On the other hand, "father" in Arabic is "ab," which hardly seems like any of the others. This became the theory of "Indo-European" languages, and today the hypothetical language that would be the common source for all Indo-European languages is called "Proto-Indo-European." The following table shows a genealogy for two "knowing" roots, which in modern English turn up as "know" and "wit."

[parisa]

some of the words that I can think of off the top of my head with similarities to English words:

Madar = mother

daukhtar = daughter/girl

pedar = father

baradar = brother

man = me

tou = you (or rather “tu” the familiar you in french which I think it’s still related to the same root word)

setareh = star

mah = moon

lab = lip

abroo = eyebrow

chooneh = chin

and of course basicly the number count.

There’s much much more to have fun with, but my brain function has slowed down this late at night!