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Tocharian is an interesting language, and it seems to have some relations to English in we Here is why I am saying this:

  • It is a centum language and the languages in that area are usually satem.
  • Some of the words, such as son and we, are cognates while the Latin word is not.

Though we may not have that many Tocharian words, I feel that this is is kind of bizarre and deserves an answer. Also, if there are words, where are there some?

Number File
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    English is spoken in India, which is a very satem language area. What exactly is "bizarre" about Tocharian? E.g. do you think that Tocharian is closer to English than Gothic is? – user6726 Dec 01 '19 at 19:19
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    Since the last Tocharian speaker died before there were any English speakers at all, one can't say it has any connection to English, except that both are Indo-European. If some words resemble one another, that's to be expected from languages that are related. Parallel evolution is common. But to prove a connection more specific, one must present evidence of widespread sound changes. Any pair of languages can come up with a dozen pairs of seeming cognates, strictly by coincidence, so you need a lot of evidence and some history to believe it. – jlawler Dec 01 '19 at 19:45
  • What you mention doesn't sound anything like an "uncanny relation". It might have been a relatively unique centum isolate among satem languages, but that doesn't make it any closer to English than it makes to all the other centum languages... and a couple of word correspondences certainly doesn't change that. – LjL Dec 01 '19 at 19:49
  • That is not what i meant. I meant germanic languages in general. You have a point. – Number File Dec 01 '19 at 21:51

2 Answers2

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The standard etymology for Latin filius (and filia) is from IE *dʰeh₁(y)- "suck". Oscan retains puklu likewise South Picene puqloh, from *putlo, cf. Sanskrit putra, so this is not an Italic change, it is Latin. Possibly the proto-Italics got tired of the word *suh₁nús but could not decide on a better word until later. Celtic also replaced *suh₁nús with *makkʷ. There is nothing at all special in Tocharian or Germanic. There is something about Latin: they replaced the presumed earlier word for "son", just as Modern English got a new word "dog".

TKR
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user6726
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  • That is probably a good example. So is (probably) Anatolian in a different way. Anatolian is thought to be the first one. – Number File Dec 01 '19 at 21:52
  • @NumberFile Anatolian was the earliest to split off, and also the earliest to be recorded in writing, but those two facts aren't necessarily connected (it's just a coincidence that Anatolian is "first" in both ways). – Draconis Dec 01 '19 at 23:15
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If two languages show features that a third one has not, the most likely assumption is that the third one lost features.

It is assumed that Tocharian split off early (why?), following which it's clear that Latin lost something.

As for son, if it compares to senex, senior, senorita, then a sense "my oldest" should be considered. G Alter, altes Haus is slang like E bro (or daddyo?), in contrast to Junge "young'un, small one; boy, son" for one. If I'm correct, we see that Latin has not lost the root. But that's phonetically difficult, as they say, and other interpretations abound that are probably not half wrong.

vectory
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    The -nu- in suh₁nús is a derivational suffix, not part of the root: cf. Greek υἱός, from the same root suH- but with a different suffix. – TKR Dec 01 '19 at 22:16