Modern English has many word roots in Latin and Greek, but where did the Latins and Greeks get those word roots in the first place? Did somebody just make it up out of the blue? Or did they get it from an earlier language, and if that’s true, where did they get it from?

Question

Modern English has many word roots in Latin and Greek, but where did the Latins and Greeks get those word roots in the first place? Did somebody just make it up out of the blue? Or did they get it from an earlier language, and if that’s true, where did they get it from?

In: Culture

Answer 1

Latin and Greek, like English, German, and most European and many other languages such as Farsi, Hindi and Gaelic, are all ultimately descended from something we call “proto Indo-European” – we don’t know how languages originated in the first place, but as people add new words and change the pronunciation of old words, languages turn into new languages.

[Here is a cool illustration](https://images.app.goo.gl/aoDkXe1CNyPiYREKA) of how some of these languages are related.