--- title: "8 Indo European Quotes by 8 authors" description: "Browse 8 Indo European quotes by 8 authors. Discover the best Indo European sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d8/gary-snyder-4502_adler_in-paul-friedrich-s-book-proto-indo-euro_289568.jpg" --- > [In Paul Friedrich's book Proto-Indo-European Trees he identifies the "semantic primitives" of the Indo-European tribe of languages through a group of words…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gary-snyder/in-paul-friedrich-s-book-proto-indo-european-trees-he-identifies-the/) [Gary Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gary-snyder/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d8/gary-snyder-4502_adler_in-paul-friedrich-s-book-proto-indo-euro_289568.jpg) > [“the word “lead” has an Indo-European root that means “to go forth, die.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-linsky/the-word-lead-has-an-indo-european-root-that-means-to-go-forth-die/) [Martin Linsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-linsky/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/575/martin-linsky-26236_leadership_the-word-lead-has-an-indo-european-root_594784.jpg) > [“All Indo-European languages have the capacity to form compounds. Indeed, German and Dutch do it, one might say, to excess. But English…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-bryson/all-indo-european-languages-have-the-capacity-to-form-compounds/) [Bill Bryson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-bryson/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/029/bill-bryson-340_english-language_all-indo-european-languages-have-the-cap_1030803.png) > [“Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language that became the sacred tongue of Hindu ritual, and the Greek and Latin languages, as well as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yuval-noah-harari/sanskrit-an-ancient-indian-language-that-became-the-sacred-tongue-of/) [Yuval Noah Harari](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yuval-noah-harari/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/59f/yuval-noah-harari-100_hinduism_sanskrit-an-ancient-indian-language-that_1400732.jpg) > [“Containing several hundred languages, among them several world languages, the Indo-European language family is the language family with the most speakers world-wide.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/s-ren-eberhardt/containing-several-hundred-languages-among-them-several-world/) [Sören Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/s-ren-eberhardt/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3e9/s-ren-eberhardt-127234_family_containing-several-hundred-languages-amo_1680887.jpg) > [In fact, from then on scholars engaged in a kind of game of comparing different Indo-European languages with one another, and eventually…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ferdinand-de-saussure/in-fact-from-then-on-scholars-engaged-in-a-kind-of-game-of-comparing/) [Ferdinand de Saussure](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ferdinand-de-saussure/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c24/ferdinand-de-saussure-19549_compare_in-fact-from-then-on-scholars-engaged-in_2150232.jpg) > [The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-lee-whorf/the-very-natural-tendency-to-use-terms-derived-from-traditional/) [Benjamin Lee Whorf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-lee-whorf/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6df/benjamin-lee-whorf-51396_adjectives_the-very-natural-tendency-to-use-terms-d_2183325.jpg) > [“After all, the Indo-European word cunt was derived from the goddess Kunda or Cunti, and shares the same root as kin and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eve-ensler/after-all-the-indo-european-word-cunt-was-derived-from-the-goddess/) [Eve Ensler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eve-ensler/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6e3/eve-ensler-1402_country_after-all-the-indo-european-word-cunt-wa_2640430.jpg) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indo-european/#itemlist", "name": "Indo European Quotes", "numberOfItems": 8, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In Paul Friedrich's book Proto-Indo-European Trees he identifies the \"semantic primitives\" of the Indo-European tribe of languages through a group of words that have not changed much through twelve thousand years - and those are tree names: especially birch, willow, adler, elm, ash, apple and beech (bher, wyt, alysos, ulmo, os, abul, bhago). Seed syllables, bija, of the life of the west.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gary Snyder" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gary-snyder/in-paul-friedrich-s-book-proto-indo-european-trees-he-identifies-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d8/gary-snyder-4502_adler_in-paul-friedrich-s-book-proto-indo-euro_289568.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d8/gary-snyder-4502_adler_in-paul-friedrich-s-book-proto-indo-euro_289568.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d8/gary-snyder-4502_adler_in-paul-friedrich-s-book-proto-indo-euro_289568.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In Paul Friedrich's book Proto-Indo-European Trees he identifies the \"semantic primitives\" of the…” — Gary Snyder", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“the word “lead” has an Indo-European root that means “to go forth, die.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Martin Linsky" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-linsky/the-word-lead-has-an-indo-european-root-that-means-to-go-forth-die/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/575/martin-linsky-26236_leadership_the-word-lead-has-an-indo-european-root_594784.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/575/martin-linsky-26236_leadership_the-word-lead-has-an-indo-european-root_594784.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/575/martin-linsky-26236_leadership_the-word-lead-has-an-indo-european-root_594784.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“the word “lead” has an Indo-European root that means “to go forth, die.” — Martin Linsky", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“All Indo-European languages have the capacity to form compounds. Indeed, German and Dutch do it, one might say, to excess. But English does it more neatly than most other languages, eschewing the choking word chains that bedevil other Germanic languages and employing the nifty refinement of making the elements reversible, so that we can distinguish between a houseboat and a boathouse, between basketwork and a workbasket, between a casebook and a bookcase. Other languages lack this facility.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Bill Bryson" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-bryson/all-indo-european-languages-have-the-capacity-to-form-compounds/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/029/bill-bryson-340_english-language_all-indo-european-languages-have-the-cap_1030803.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/029/bill-bryson-340_english-language_all-indo-european-languages-have-the-cap_1030803.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/029/bill-bryson-340_english-language_all-indo-european-languages-have-the-cap_1030803.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“All Indo-European languages have the capacity to form compounds. Indeed, German and Dutch do it, one might…” — Bill Bryson", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language that became the sacred tongue of Hindu ritual, and the Greek and Latin languages, as well as similarities between all these languages and Gothic, Celtic, Old Persian, German, French and English. Thus in Sanskrit, ‘mother’ is ‘matar’, in Latin it is ‘mater’, and in Old Celtic it is ‘mathir’. Jones surmised that all these languages must share a common origin, developing from a now-forgotten ancient ancestor. He was thus the first to identify what later came to be called the Indo-European family of languages.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Yuval Noah Harari" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yuval-noah-harari/sanskrit-an-ancient-indian-language-that-became-the-sacred-tongue-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/59f/yuval-noah-harari-100_hinduism_sanskrit-an-ancient-indian-language-that_1400732.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/59f/yuval-noah-harari-100_hinduism_sanskrit-an-ancient-indian-language-that_1400732.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/59f/yuval-noah-harari-100_hinduism_sanskrit-an-ancient-indian-language-that_1400732.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language that became the sacred tongue of Hindu ritual, and the Greek and Latin…” — Yuval Noah Harari", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Containing several hundred languages, among them several world languages, the Indo-European language family is the language family with the most speakers world-wide.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sören Eberhardt" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/s-ren-eberhardt/containing-several-hundred-languages-among-them-several-world/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3e9/s-ren-eberhardt-127234_family_containing-several-hundred-languages-amo_1680887.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3e9/s-ren-eberhardt-127234_family_containing-several-hundred-languages-amo_1680887.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3e9/s-ren-eberhardt-127234_family_containing-several-hundred-languages-amo_1680887.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Containing several hundred languages, among them several world languages, the Indo-European language family…” — Sören Eberhardt", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In fact, from then on scholars engaged in a kind of game of comparing different Indo-European languages with one another, and eventually they could not fail to wonder what exactly these connections showed, and how they should be interpreted in concrete terms.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ferdinand de Saussure" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ferdinand-de-saussure/in-fact-from-then-on-scholars-engaged-in-a-kind-of-game-of-comparing/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c24/ferdinand-de-saussure-19549_compare_in-fact-from-then-on-scholars-engaged-in_2150232.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c24/ferdinand-de-saussure-19549_compare_in-fact-from-then-on-scholars-engaged-in_2150232.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c24/ferdinand-de-saussure-19549_compare_in-fact-from-then-on-scholars-engaged-in_2150232.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In fact, from then on scholars engaged in a kind of game of comparing different Indo-European languages with…” — Ferdinand de Saussure", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Benjamin Lee Whorf" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-lee-whorf/the-very-natural-tendency-to-use-terms-derived-from-traditional/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": 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