Etymology is an account of words, its origin and development.
In India, in Nirukkta, etymology is described as:
Thathsama - similar to that
Thathbhava – derived from that
In this subject capsule of Etymology, we look at words of Indian origin which have been taken in or adopted by other languages of the world.
This spirit of Indian vocabulary in other languages can be looked at in two levels.
At the first level, there are words like Bungalow, Bandicoot etc., which have been borrowed into the English language during the British colonial rule of India. Words of this nature number over 700. These words have been documented and books have been written on them.
What we shall look at this capsule is of something that is more ancient.
That is at another level, we find a range of words in the world languages which are very similar. These similarities are noted through all the ancient languages of the world.
How is there such similarity of vocabulary among the ancient languages all across the world?
European scholars in the last 500 years have been looking for answers through the migration theories. Through a new field of study called philology, scholars are now trying to identify how the vocabulary and similar sounding words have spread all over this world.
In this subject capsule, we have tried to list out thousands of words, alphabet wise that have origin in the Indian vocabulary.
Let us look at a sample, of letter beginning with the alphabet B.
Between Samskrt and Arabic languages too there are many similarities. A sample of them:
Through this study, we hope to bring out to the world, the wide spread nature of Indian language, that had spread all over the world giving refinement to the respective native languages.
If we can take this study further, and establish the spread of vocabulary from the Samskrt language and Samskrt language being the oldest living language of this world, then could this suggest or indicate to us that the Samskrt language is not only the mother of other Indian languages but could also probably be the mother of many other ancient world languages.