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Venkatesh Rao@vgr·Sep 25, 2017Replying to @nishaspillai and @zem42It doesn't claim to be all languages (Chinese and African languages are missing), only proto-indo-European (PIE) descended.21
Venkatesh Rao@vgr·Sep 25, 2017Replying to @vgr @nishaspillai and @zem42Sanskrit is a small side node because it is a dead classics language so few living speakers. The chart is speaker-population-sized1
Venkatesh Rao@vgr·Sep 25, 2017Replying to @vgr @nishaspillai and @zem42An interesting q is "Sanskrit derived" vocabulary. I suspect pop notion of common languages being "derived" from scholarly is 100% backwards1
Venkatesh Rao@vgr·Sep 25, 2017Replying to @vgr @nishaspillai and @zem42Modern commoner langs are derived from dead commoner languages. "Sanskritization" is likely 75% shared historic roots rather than "descent"2
Venkatesh Rao@vgr·Sep 25, 2017Replying to @vgr @nishaspillai and @zem42Point being, Sanskrit is rich, evil great-uncle not direct ancestor. I suspect same is true of other "classical" elite languages like Latin.1
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zem@zem42·Sep 25, 2017Replying to @nishaspillai and @vgrby "sanskritised" do you mean deliberate and systematic insertion of sanskrit vocabulary?6
Venkatesh Rao@vgr·Sep 25, 2017Replying to @zem42 and @nishaspillaiYes. For Hindi it was living memory (why Doordarshan Hindi sounds unnatural): an actual committee sat down to purge Urdu/sub Sanskrit origin31
zem@zem42·Sep 25, 2017Replying to @vgr and @nishaspillaithat's interesting because i've also seen claims that urdu words crept into hindi due to a "high status" perception of urdu as more cultured5
Venkatesh Rao@vgrReplying to @zem42 and @nishaspillaiLanguages of political elites tend to suffer same fate as the political elites themselves. But literary/cultural elite langs retain status6:25 PM · Sep 25, 20171 Like
zem@zem42·Sep 25, 2017Replying to @vgr and @nishaspillaicounterpoint: french words still have a high-status perception in english even though they came in as the language of the political elite
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Venkatesh Rao@vgr·Sep 25, 2017Replying to @nishaspillai and @zem42Both are cultural elite languages as well. English has never lost its political power (yet) and French as a political lang is a joke11