There is not much to reflect on in this section since Crystal simply goes through all the different families of language from region to region. The fact that linguists, scientists and archaeologists have been able to piece together a Proto-Indo-European language simply by comparing the sister languages together is remarkable. It is also fascinating to learn that Bengali is in some ancient way related to Spanish. A couple of interesting facts that I found while reading Crystals descriptions of all the languages: 1. No one knows where the Austro-Asiatic languages came from and when the people migrated to that region. 2. Korean is related to Altaic i.e. Turkish?? There are over 650 languages spoken in New Guinea. That would be as if "Britain, one third of the size, would find itself containing nearly 200 languages, separated from each other by distances of only twenty miles" (395).
As I posted earlier under my cultural posts, knowing the history of any language that one is learning is essential. It helps one to understand why certain events are tied to that language. If I had no knowledge of the history of the Turkish language, I would be confused as to why the Uyghurs in Western China have such a connection with the present day Republic of Turkey. It is because they are connected through ethnic and linguistic ties. Also, knowing that Ottoman Turkish had lots of Arabic words as well as Arabic influence will help one to understand why some words are pronounced the way they are.
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