Some language can of course be very
conservative in some respects & very derived in other respects. For
instance, a whole sentence is the same in spelling, meaning and +-pronunciation
in Dutch and Latin: "sta" (usu. we say: "sta stil", but to
dogs we still say "sta!") --Marc
:-)
+++++++++++++++++
From:
J.P. Mallory, In
Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language Archeology and Myth (Thames and
Hudson, 1989, paperback, 1996), pp. 81-82.
The earliest Baltic texts appear quite late when compared with most other
Indo-European languages. In the sixteenth century, we first encounter written
examples of both the Old Prussian and Lithuanian languages generally emerging in
the form of religious literature such as Lutheran chatechisms. The texts, as
indeed the modern Lithuanian language today, has always attracted the attention
of linguists since, despite their recent date, they appear remarkably archaic in
terms of Indo-European linguistics. To take a familiar example, the Lithuanian
proverb 'God gave teeth; God will give bread' displays an almost incredible
similiarity to is translation into the much older Latin and Sanskrit:
Â
| Lithuanian |
Dievas |
dave |
dantis; |
Dievas |
duos |
duonos |
| Sanskrit |
Devas |
adadat |
datas; |
Devas |
dat |
dhanas |
| Latin |
Deus |
Dedit |
dentes; |
Dues |
dabit |
panem |