Sir William Jones was the first to show that there are many common cognate words shared by Sanskrit and European languages. Speaking to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta on February 2, 1786, Jones made a statement which was soon to become quite famous:
…the Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philosopher could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists. --Quoted in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, ed. William Morris (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), article by Calvert Watkins, p. XIX.
Common Words Shared By English and Sanskrit
Advocate | Adhivaktr |
Bind | Bandhi |
Bright | Bharajat |
Brother | Bhatr |
Candle | Chandra |
Cardio | Hrd |
Come | Gam |
Deity | Devata |
Eight | Ashta |
End | Anta |
Genus | Janus |
Gnosis | Gnana |
Idea | Vidya |
Identity | Idamta |
Immortal | Amtra |
Kalon | Kalyana |
Mega | Maha |
Man | Manu |
Mind | Manas |
Mortal | Mrta |
Mother | Matr |
Same | Sama |
Three | Tri |
Vivi | Jiva |
Voice | Vaca |
Wind | Vata |
Yoke | Yoga |
Young | Yuvan |
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