[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I recall reading that Indo-European can be traced to Sanskrit origins.

Udder way 'round. Sanskrit is a very old Eastern Indo-European Language. There are two main branches of Indo-European, the Eastern or "Satem" languages and the Western or "Centum" (pronounced "Kentum") branch. Satem and centum are Avestan (old Iranian) and Latin for one-hundred. In the Eastern branch, the first sound in this word was invariably a sibilant (e.g., "s", "sh" ,etc), in the Western branch a fricative ( "h", "k"...).

Sanskrit, which can be translated as "holy" or "sacred", is a very old member of the Indic family. It stands in relation to modern Indic languages somewhat in the same status as Latin to modern Romance languages. It is fairly far evolved from Indo-European. It is interesting because it still preserves the full grammatic structure and inflections of the older language. One feature is particulary intriguing, the "number" of a noun can be singular, dual or plural. In other words the form of the word for man can be "man", "two (or both) men" or "(more than two) men". There are lots of things that occur so often in pairs that perhaps this is natural: hands, eyes, arms, twins.... English to this day has a unique dual designation, "both". "Both eyes" or "both arms" are different than "two eyes" or "two arms".

[Verginius Rufus]

Another example of the satem/centum divide is the word for "heart." In Greek (centum) it is "kardia." In Latin (centum) it is "cor" (root "cord-"). In English (centum) the initial "k" sound has changed to an "h" giving us "heart." (The same k/h correspondence can be seen in the Greek, Latin, and English words for "dog" [kyon/canis/hound]...and that's why the English word for 100 starts with an "h"). In Russian (satem), the word for "heart" is "serdtse." (Same root but the "k" sound is replaced with an "s" sound.)

[Wilhelm Tell]

I haven't given serious study to anything as exotic as Sanskrit, but how languages evolved has long been an interest of mine. Since the Indo-European languages are related, the study of one can pay off in interesting ways. For example, I recently "discovered" the Latvian language. I can read Russian and German and was aware of the Baltic languages but had not studied them. I recently obtained a Bible in Latvian, and immediately saw the "Russian" grammar all over the place! Many of the words have more or less similar counterparts in Russian, German (and Swedish) and Latin. The more Latvian I read, the more of it "clicks" in my mind. What did not "click" was when I have tried to read a language like Hungarian that is from a different framework. I was unable to guess at the meaning of the words or the sentence structure in Hungarian -- I was completely in unfamiliar territory.

[servantoftheservant]

One feature is particulary intriguing, the "number" of a noun can be singular, dual or plural

Another interesting thing about Sanskrit is the ability to form non-linear sentences. Because the each word has a case imbedded in it, the words of a sentence can theoretically be placed in any order and the sentence still makes sense. The Sanskrit alpahabet is also fascinating as the letters are grouped by how the mouth is formed when pronouncing them. pa pha ba bha ma is the 'labial' group, for example.