Episode 3 Indo-European Languages in Europe
Language Families of the World
Dr John McWhorter
Film Review
The Germanic subfamily of Indo-European languages includes, German, English, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Yiddish and Afrikaans. All are descended from Gothic, which only survives as a written language.
Goths (and their language) seem to have originated in Denmark and migrated north to Scandinavia and South as far as Italy. The Goths used words like blood, bone, hand, run, stone, drink and good, all words that have no known Proto-Indo-European roots. It’s believed the Goths borrow these words from indigenous peoples who inhabited Europe prior to their arrival.
McWhorter also makes the point that there are three dozen Romance languages in addition to French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. These include French Provencal and Occitan (spoke in southern France); Romansh (spoken in Switzerland), Sardinian, Sicilian and Piedmontese (spoken in Italy); and Aromanian (spoken in Romania).
The Balto-Slavic sub-family includes the Baltic languages Lithuanian and Latvian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian.
Greek is its own sub-family.
The Celtic sub-family includes Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish and Breton (spoken in Brittany France). The Celts originated in the area around Austria and migrated both east and west. Celtic cloth patterns are found on Chinese mummies and plaid and twill patterns linked to Scotland have been traced back to the Caucasus mountains.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/6120000/6120006
The Most Revolutionary Act 
The Goths originated from Denmark? Interesting …
Sweden is divided into three main regions. The southern is refered to as Götaland – The Land of Goths. (In Latin – Gothia) This for a reason.
There are still remnants of the Goth language in Gotland, Sweden. (The largest island here.) In pure form, not much used anymore though, but is very reflected in the locally spoken Swedish. It’s one of the most difficult Swedish accents for Swedes to understand.
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The Goths most probably came from the area now known as Denmark but, some scholars believe they came from an area in Eastern Europe much earlier. Around Romania and Hungary and parts of Ukraine. They were the first tribe to really spank the Romans. The slaughter of Varus and his three legions in the Teutoburg Forest. Only Attila and the Huns brought more terror to the Romans. When bouts of depression overcame Augustus, he was known to shriek ‘Varus, give me back my legions.’
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When I look at the maps of Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens leaving Africa, it’s pretty obvious all our European ancestors migrated there via the Middle East. It just seems that the middle step is missing – where they went prior to settling in Western Europe.
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