Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Not a question, but something I found on Mental Floss that I thought would be of interest to forum members. The graphic could be better … it’s hand drawn and hard to read in places. Read the text below the graphic to learn what the asterisks mean. Anyway, I found it interesting so here it is:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/68281/evolution-two-indo-european-language-family

Makes me wonder what came before *dwóh. They call the hypothesized source at the center “Proto-Indo-European.”

What amazes me most is the striking similarity (as they noted) of the sounds in all those branches. You don’t get that with more complex concepts (love, hate, war, peace). Maybe it’s the fundamental nature of counting and the importance of conveying amounts that drives those similarities. I believe some of the first writing was based on the need to account for trade transactions. Correct me if I’m wrong. No idea if spoken language followed the same patterns.

Would love to see a similar diagram for “one.” Might try to hack one together via Google Translate.