Sanskrit connections to English | World History | Khan Academy
Sanskrit connections to English | World History | Khan Academy
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How Sanskrit is connected to Latin, English and other European languages.
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Content
0.031 -> - In the 18th century you start to have
2.635 -> significant interaction between
4.893 -> the English and the Indians,
6.033 -> especially in the East Indian Company.
8.783 -> And as part of that,
9.616 -> you start to have Western scholars start
11.381 -> to really study Sanskrit and the Vedas.
14.597 -> And as they do these,
16.389 -> it starts to really open up their mind
18.28 -> not just to the roots of Sanskrit
20.735 -> but also many of the Western languages
23.685 -> including English itself.
25.779 -> So, this is a quote in 1786
28.822 -> by the English philologist,
30.647 -> someone who studies written languages
32.331 -> especially from historical sources,
33.773 -> Sir William Jones.
35.287 -> He wrote, “The Sanskrit language,
38.015 -> whatever be its antiquity,
40.035 -> is of wonderful structure.
41.45 -> More perfect than the Greek,
42.539 -> more copious than the Latin,
44.07 -> and more exquisitely refine than either,
46.746 -> yet bearing to both of
them a stronger affinity
50.368 -> both in the roots of the verbs
51.849 -> and in the forms of grammar,
52.781 -> than could not possibly have
been produced by accident...”
56.462 -> Let me underline that.
57.831 -> “…than could not possibly have
been produced by accident.”
60.632 -> So he says there’s a lot of commonality
62.418 -> between the Sanskrit and Latin and Greek,
64.52 -> and it’s a strong affinity,
66.251 -> a strong connectedness
67.239 -> that could not have produced by accident.
69.522 -> So strong indeed,
70.454 -> that no philologer could examine all three
73.378 -> without believing them to have sprung
75.476 -> from some common source."
77.497 -> Let me underline that.
78.868 -> “Without believing them to have sprung
80.647 -> from some common source which,
82.616 -> perhaps no longer exists;
84.355 -> there is a similar reason
though not quit so forcible
87.954 -> for supposing that both
the Gothic and the Celtic,
91.282 -> though blended with a very different idiom
93.648 -> had the same origin with the Sanskrit;
95.882 -> and the old Persian might be
added to the same family.”
99.369 -> And so when they started
to study the Vedas
101.774 -> and look at the Sanskrit,
102.607 -> they started to realize
103.647 -> well maybe all of these
languages are connected.
106.159 -> And now modern day philologists
108.377 -> believe this very strongly
the more they have studied it.
111.779 -> Based on the connections and the grammar
114.042 -> and even the vocabulary and
the word structure themselves,
116.807 -> they now theorize that a parent language
120.334 -> of Sanskrit, Latin,
122.626 -> and the Germanic languages
124.801 -> and the Celtic languages
126.165 -> recall a language today
called Proto-Indo–European,
128.925 -> which is a lost language.
130.848 -> But we think that Sanskrit
is one of the oldest…
134.236 -> Is one of the oldest
evidences that we have
137.026 -> of that Proto-Indo-European Language.
141.343 -> Sanskrit as of course the parent language
144.04 -> has evolved in different parts of Indian
145.909 -> to languages like Hindi,
Bengali, and Punjabi.
149.157 -> Latin, which is also a dead language now,
152.291 -> has evolved into languages like
154.521 -> Spanish, Italian, and French.
156.796 -> And English
158.09 -> which is considered a Germanic
language structurally,
160.947 -> but has significant influence
from Latin and French,
164.092 -> they all come from that same
Proto-Indo-European root.
169.004 -> And just to get an appreciation
171.092 -> for why these philologist believe this,
173.498 -> and this is something when I first saw it,
175.451 -> really blew my mind a little bit.
177.777 -> I’ll show you some connections
between Sanskrit words,
180.776 -> and those of you who might be
181.89 -> Hindi, Bengali or Punjabi speakers,
184.013 -> or any of these North
Indian languages in India,
186.315 -> will see the connection to Sanskrit.
188.173 -> But what’s amazing is
189.464 -> how these words are connected to Latin
192.48 -> and many of the languages
derived from Latin.
195.08 -> Some of your Persian speakers
196.289 -> might recognize some,
197.756 -> some commonalities
199.148 -> and, most importantly,
200.382 -> the language that we
are speaking right now,
201.517 -> how to relate it to English.
203.513 -> And here is just a sample
of some Sanskrit words
207.44 -> that have an eerie resemblance
209.516 -> to both English and in
some cases Latin words.
212.241 -> Or many cases Latin words.
213.433 -> I’ve just given Latin in a few of them.
215.333 -> So the Sanskrit matr,
217.891 -> well in English we have mother
219.673 -> and in Latin we have mater.
221.325 -> And we also from Latin
in English via Latin,
223.887 -> we have words like maternity and maternal
226.539 -> all referring to the
same idea of motherhood.
229.546 -> And this general trend,
231.072 -> this t sound, matr or mater
233.712 -> becoming of more of a tha sound in English
236.324 -> and the Germanic languages
237.281 -> is a trend you’ll see over and over again.
239.34 -> In Sanskrit you have pithr,
241.645 -> in Latin you have pater,
244.308 -> and by way of Latin in modern English
246.782 -> we have words like paternity and paternal.
249.753 -> But going through the Germanic languages
251.951 -> you have once again that tha sound
254.314 -> becoming more of a tha sound.
256.055 -> And you also see this
pattern as you go from
258.748 -> this Proto-Indo-European,
260.569 -> this theoretical language,
261.402 -> and especially if you think
about relative to Sanskrit,
264.599 -> that you have the sound going from
266.816 -> a pa to a fa as you go to
the Germanic languages.
269.73 -> So pithr becomes, you
could say it father.
273.412 -> And other words.
274.379 -> Na in Sanskrit…and those of you who speak
277.87 -> Hindi or Bengali would
recognize that of course,
280.663 -> and in English it is no.
282.98 -> Gau which is still,
284.498 -> it’s a Hindi word for cow,
286.716 -> in English it’s cow.
288.162 -> Gau , cow.
289.454 -> Naama,name.
291.098 -> In Latin nomen.
292.915 -> Dwar, door.
294.476 -> This one I thought was really interesting.
296.21 -> I didn’t know this until I started
297.073 -> looking it up a little bit.
299.044 -> Anamika is Sanskrit,
and it means anonymous.
304.003 -> Kaal, which is referring
to time in Sanskrit
306.995 -> and in modern Sanskrit drive languages
309.965 -> like Hindi and Bengali
311.365 -> it’s referring to references in time;
314.052 -> tomorrow, yesterday.
315.209 -> And in English you have calendar.
317.789 -> Naas and in something like,
320.14 -> in modern languages in the
sub-continent and you have naas,
324.145 -> and in English you have nose.
326.167 -> Loc in...in English
328.94 -> you have the prefix loc,
330.926 -> as in location or locate.
333.498 -> And then this is of
course a very nice one,
335.361 -> Sanskrit lubh, which means desire,
338.437 -> well in English we have the word love.
341.867 -> And this is just a sample,
343.266 -> I encourage you to look it up more,
344.561 -> you’ll be amazed by the connections
346.757 -> between Sanskrit and English.
348.771 -> And now I'm going to show you
350.137 -> what I think is one of the coolest,
351.235 -> because it isn’t just a
linguistic connection,
353.643 -> but it is also a,
355.087 -> I guess you could say
spiritual connection.
357.974 -> And this is the names
360.633 -> for the sky god from
several different traditions
365.579 -> So in the Vedas they
make reference to a god,
369.951 -> Dyauspithr, and it’s
literally referring to
374.342 -> Dyaus,
375.352 -> referring to sky.
377.847 -> And we already talked about Pithr
379.715 -> been the word for father.
381.172 -> So it’s referring to
this idea of sky father.
385.59 -> And some of you might be
getting goosebumps now
387.421 -> when you see where this is going.
389.516 -> Well, in Greek we have
a very similar word,
392.415 -> instead of Dyaus we have Zeus
394.055 -> and those are very similar words.
395.506 -> The spelling might be different,
396.423 -> but with the way it
comes out of your mouth
398.036 -> is very similar.
399.555 -> Dyaus, Dyaus,
401.369 -> Zeus,
402.34 -> instead of Pithr you have Pater,
404.117 -> once again you have sky,
407.685 -> you have sky father,
410.762 -> sky father right over here.
412.907 -> And this is another connection
414.315 -> that blew my mind.
415.148 -> It wasn’t obvious when I first saw it,
416.873 -> but Jupiter from Latin,
418.611 -> the Roman god,
419.809 -> you could use Jupiter.
421.414 -> This is once again instead
of Zeus you have Dyau,
424.293 -> instead of Pater you have Pitr.
426.933 -> So, instead of Dyauspitr you have Jupiter.
429.86 -> Dyauspitr, Jupiter.
432.01 -> These are very very similar words
433.794 -> even though the spelling seems different,
435.519 -> the way it comes out of your mouth
437.527 -> is very very very very very close.
440.334 -> And this is further
evidence for the closeness
443.465 -> between Sanskrit, between Greek,
447.014 -> and between Latin.
449.181 -> So once again, we have sky father.
452.04 -> And this of course an image of…
453.478 -> well it’s hard to tell whether
that’s Jupiter or Zeus.
455.745 -> I believe that is a picture of Jupiter.
457.406 -> And what’s also interesting is,
459.567 -> the Vedas sight
461.26 -> Dyauspitr
463.309 -> as the father of Indra.
465.436 -> Who’s considered the King of the gods.
467.485 -> One of the most significant,
468.925 -> if not the most significant
god in Hinduism.
471.19 -> And Indra is now in,
472.675 -> especially in the Vedas,
474.326 -> and this is the most spoken
about god in the Vedas,
477.275 -> Has many of the of the qualities
479.112 -> that we now in Greek and Roman traditions
482.537 -> associate with Zeus and Jupiter.
485.286 -> Indra is a sky god,
486.892 -> throws bolts of lightning.
488.175 -> Actually eerie similarity
with the Nordic god of Thor.
492.152 -> Where Nordic people were
also Indo-European people.
496.367 -> Where Indra he throws a hammer
498.433 -> and he defeats these monsters.
500.028 -> And all of these things,
very similar to Thor.
502.54 -> So hopefully these…
503.781 -> You know when I first learn this,
504.838 -> it just kind of made me realize
how connected the world is,
507.618 -> and it started to make me
start to look for patterns
509.734 -> where I hadn’t seen them before.
511.215 -> And it really shows
how these civilizations
515.007 -> that seemed very unconnected
518.637 -> might have,
519.511 -> and probably we do believe
521.165 -> emerged and (mumbles)
524.088 -> emerged from the same place.
526.393 -> Modern philologists and historian
529.524 -> believe that this Proto-Indo-European
531.704 -> might have been spoken by
people in the Caucuses.
534.547 -> The word Caucasian is referring
really to these people
537.828 -> from that Caucuses area there,
539.864 -> but we don’t know for sure.
541.028 -> And we believe that they migrated out.
543.595 -> And so when we talk
about the Germanic tribes
546.602 -> going into Northern Europe.
547.671 -> The Celtic tribes going into,
549.463 -> I guess you could say
North South Central Europe.
552.886 -> You could talk about the Italic,
554.918 -> the Latin tribes,
556.094 -> you could talk about the Greek tribes,
558.076 -> and you could also talk about the In…
559.649 -> you could also talk
about Indo-Aryan tribes
562.022 -> which eventually would settle into Persia
564.298 -> and into Northern India.
565.662 -> These we believe are all connected.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemwplAKWsY