--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "congotre o" <congotron@...> wrote:
>
>
> It was interesting to see these arguments.
> I am a novice to many of these details, but I want advice on
something rudimentary.
> I met a guy from Kurgan, Russia where some say this whole language
family 'originated.'
>
> I started trying to explain this whole idea of a common ancestral
language, and started off with the word he used 'sto', Russian for
100, and I explained to a group (of math students) its roots and
relation to 'hund' of hundred, following that centum/satem argument
from introductions to etymology. I explained the detail, but it
wasn't impressive, because it wasn't obvious to others that these
relationships were not accidental. On the other hand, if you use
common words like 'mother', some assume that similar words in faraway
places are an accident, or a more recently globalized word.
>
> What kind of examples will bring the average person uninformed of
p-IE ancestry to give it any attention, since common words like 'dog'
and 'perro', as you said here, are from sidestreams?
>
> I know this jumps the whole conversation backwards, but for me, in
the real world, it's hard to strike up a conversation where I can make
the argument about common ancestry believable at all.
I'm not the most qualified person on the list to answer your question,
but I'll suggest that if you can get your hands on Oswald Szemerényi's
"Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics" (e.g. at the library, or
by interlibrary loan from a university library), you'll find many
examples of cognates across many languages; I also recommend:
Czech historical grammar. --
by Mann, Stuart E. (Stuart Edward), 1905-
[London] : Univ. of London, 1957.
Series:
London East European ser: language and literature
Description:
183 p. --
It has many examples of words common to many Indo-European languages,
but with an emphasis on Slavic and especially Czech. I think it may
be helpful in your goal.
Andrew