Lesson 3: the comparative method

Indo-European languages 
Numeral Sanskrit
Slavonic Greek
Latin
German(Gothic) 
2
3 
10
100 
Dvau
Trayas
Catvaras
Dasa Satam 
D(u)va
Tri
Cetyre
Desatb
Sbto 
Dyo
Treis
Tettares
Deka
He-katon 
Duo
Tres
Quattuor
December
Centum 
Twai
Threis
Fidwor
Taihun
Hund 
We can be certain that words similar in form are cognates if they express material 
phenomena like "night", "star", "snow", "wind", "thunder": animals like "hound", 
"goat", "ox", "steer"; parts of a house like "door", "timber"; parts of the human body 
like "ear", "tooth", "heart", "foot"; and most significant of all, words which express 
family relationships like "father", "mother", brother" and "sister", The following chart 
illustrates this: 
Modern
English 
Sanskrit
Slavonic Greek
Latin
German(Gothic) 
Father
Mother
brother
daughter 
Pitar
Matar
Bhratar
Duhitar 
mati
bray(r)b
dbshti 
Pater
Meter
Phrator
Thygater 
Pater
Mater
Frater 
Fadar
Modar
Brother
Dauhtar 

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But mere coincidences of related words are not enough to prove their close 
kinship. Jones pointed outlast long ago as 1786 that grammatical forms had to be taken 
into consideration because only resemblances in the grammatical forms and the 
meaning expressed by them are absolutely reliable. If the same grammatical meanings 
are expressed in the same grammatical forms in the compared languages, we can be 
sure of their close relationship. Take, for instance, the verb "to take" in related 
languages, in the form "they take":