{"id":8222,"date":"2016-04-28T07:37:13","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T07:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=8222"},"modified":"2016-04-28T05:28:09","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T05:28:09","slug":"indo-european-roots-of-russian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/indo-european-roots-of-russian\/","title":{"rendered":"Indo-European Roots of Russian"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_9039\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9039\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9039\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/04\/knowledge-book-library-glasses.jpg\" alt=\"Book\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/04\/knowledge-book-library-glasses.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/04\/knowledge-book-library-glasses-350x263.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9039\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image from Pexels<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Learners of the more popular Germanic languages &#8212; English and German &#8212; and the more popular Romance language &#8212; French, Spanish, and Italian &#8212; may be tempted to think of all Indo-European languages in terms of these high-visibility languages. I&#8217;ve once heard someone say &#8220;Russian is so different from Indo-European languages.&#8221; Some languages of Western Europe may be related to each other more closely and have more shared features thanks to closer ties; however, Russian is, in fact, also an Indo-European language.<\/p>\n<p>Russian belongs to the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/East_Slavic_languages\">East Slavic<\/a> language group, which is part of the Indo-European language family. Granted, it &#8220;split off&#8221; from the rest of the languages in the group a long time ago, but some core vocabulary illustrates their connection. Note that the English equivalent may not be a cognate of the Russian word.<\/p>\n<h2>Family<\/h2>\n<p>The most obvious group of cognates with other Indo-European languages describes family relations. Some examples are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u043c\u0430\u0442\u044c (mother; you will remember that in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oblique_case\">oblique cases<\/a>, \u043c\u0430\u0442\u044c becomes \u043c\u0430\u0301\u0442\u0435\u0440\u0438, etc., which is much more similar to its cognates)<\/li>\n<li>\u0431\u0440\u0430\u0442 (brother)<\/li>\n<li>\u0434\u043e\u0447\u044c (daughter, oblique cases &#8212; \u0434\u043e\u0301\u0447\u0435\u0440\u0438, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>\u0436\u0435\u043d\u0430\u0301 (wife)<\/li>\n<li>\u0441\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0440\u0430\u0301 (sister)<\/li>\n<li>\u0441\u044b\u043d (son)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To give one example, in terms of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European\/g%CA%B7%E1%B8%97n\">etymology<\/a>, the cognates of \u0436\u0435\u043d\u0430\u0301 in other Indo-European languages appear in Armenian, Celtic, Germanic (&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/queen#English\">queen<\/a>,&#8221; anyone?), Greek, and Indic languages.<\/p>\n<h2>Home<\/h2>\n<p>Several things around the house also have Indo-European names, which have cognates in other languages.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u0443\u0301\u0433\u043e\u043b (corner, angle)<\/li>\n<li>\u0434\u044b\u043c (smoke)<\/li>\n<li>\u043e\u0433\u043e\u0301\u043d\u044c (fire)<\/li>\n<li>\u0434\u043e\u043c (house)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Hindi\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%97#Etymology\">\u0906\u0917<\/a>\u00a0\u200e(<span class=\"tr\" lang=\"\" xml:lang=\"\"><span class=\"tr\" lang=\"\" xml:lang=\"\"><em>\u0101g<\/em>, fire) is a cognate of the Russian \u043e\u0433\u043e\u0301\u043d\u044c.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Common Verbs<\/h2>\n<p>The next group is made of verbs denoting common actions and states.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u0432\u0435\u043b\u0435\u0301\u0442\u044c (to bid\/order)<\/li>\n<li>\u0432\u0435\u0440\u0442\u0435\u0301\u0442\u044c (to spin)<\/li>\n<li>\u0432\u0438\u0301\u0434\u0435\u0442\u044c (to see)<\/li>\n<li>\u0434\u0430\u0442\u044c (to give)<\/li>\n<li>\u0435\u0441\u0442\u044c (to eat)<\/li>\n<li>\u0436\u0438\u0442\u044c (to live)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An example of a cognate of \u0432\u0435\u0440\u0442\u0435\u0301\u0442\u044c in another language is the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/werden#Etymology\">German<\/a>\u00a0<em>werden\u00a0<\/em>(to become).<\/p>\n<h2>Numbers<\/h2>\n<p>Unsurprisingly, a lot of Russian numbers are also of Indo-European origin. One notable exception is <a href=\"https:\/\/ru.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BA#.D0.AD.D1.82.D0.B8.D0.BC.D0.BE.D0.BB.D0.BE.D0.B3.D0.B8.D1.8F\">\u0441\u043e\u0301\u0440\u043e\u043a<\/a> (forty), which comes from an old measure used in hunting.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u0434\u0432\u0430 (two)<\/li>\n<li>\u0442\u0440\u0438 (three)<\/li>\n<li>\u0434\u0435\u0301\u0441\u044f\u0442\u044c (ten)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Hellenic\/d%C3%BAw%C5%8D#Descendants\">Greek<\/a>\u00a0<em>\u03b4\u03cd\u03bf\u00a0<\/em>(two) is one of the cognates in this group.<\/p>\n<h2>Food<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_9040\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9040\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9040\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/04\/water-drink-glass-drinking.jpg\" alt=\"glass of water\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/04\/water-drink-glass-drinking.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/04\/water-drink-glass-drinking-350x233.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9040\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image from Pexels<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Names of basic food items are also thought to come from the old Proto-Indo-European language.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u0432\u043e\u0434\u0430\u0301 (water)<\/li>\n<li>\u043c\u044f\u0301\u0441\u043e (meat)<\/li>\n<li>\u0441\u043e\u043b\u044c (salt)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/unda#Latin\">Spanish<\/a>\u00a0<em>onda\u00a0<\/em>(wave) is one of the cognates of \u0432\u043e\u0434\u0430. Fun fact,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic\/udenskyos#Descendants\">whisky<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>is another cognate.<\/p>\n<h2>Nature and Outdoors<\/h2>\n<p>Another group of words refers to plants, animals, and landscape features. Some examples are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u0432\u043e\u043b\u043a (wolf)<\/li>\n<li>\u0431\u0435\u0440\u0451\u0437\u0430 (birch)<\/li>\n<li>\u0433\u0443\u0441\u044c (goose)<\/li>\n<li>\u043a\u043e\u0442 (cat)<\/li>\n<li>\u0431\u0435\u0301\u0440\u0435\u0433 (coast)<\/li>\n<li>\u0433\u043e\u0440\u0430\u0301 (mountain)<\/li>\n<li>\u043c\u043e\u0301\u0440\u0435 (sea)<\/li>\n<li>\u043b\u0443\u043d\u0430\u0301 (moon)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B4%D9%86#Etymology\">cognate<\/a> of \u043b\u0443\u043d\u0430 in an Indo-European language outside of Europe is the Persian\u00a0\u0631\u0648\u0634\u0646\u00a0(<em>row\u0161an<\/em>, light).<\/p>\n<p>At this point, many of the cognates are hard to identify, so having this information may not be helpful in learning Russian. However, if you look at a Latin verb conjugation table and compare it to Russian, you will see that your knowledge of other Indo-European languages may, in fact, aid your Russian learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"233\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/04\/water-drink-glass-drinking-350x233.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"glass of water\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/04\/water-drink-glass-drinking-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/04\/water-drink-glass-drinking.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Learners of the more popular Germanic languages &#8212; English and German &#8212; and the more popular Romance language &#8212; French, Spanish, and Italian &#8212; may be tempted to think of all Indo-European languages in terms of these high-visibility languages. I&#8217;ve once heard someone say &#8220;Russian is so different from Indo-European languages.&#8221; Some languages of Western&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/indo-european-roots-of-russian\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":9040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[178,8],"tags":[11109,65,51419],"class_list":["post-8222","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-language","tag-cognates","tag-etymology","tag-indo-european-languages"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8222"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9044,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8222\/revisions\/9044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}