1. The comparative-historical method in linguistics

4. Indo-European family of the languages.
Indo-European is the name given for geographic reasons to the large and welldefined linguistic family that includes most of the languages of Europe, past and present, as well as those found in a vast area extending across Iran and Afghanistan to the northern half of the Indian subcontinent. In modern times the family has spread by colonization throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Speaking to the Asiatick Society in Calcutta on February 2, 1786, the English Orientalist and jurist Sir William Jones (1746-1794) uttered his now famous pronouncement: 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 philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.
5. Ancient Germanic tribes and their classification. The Great Migration of Germanic tribes.
During the third and fourth centuries, there were large migrations of land-hungry Germans southward and westward onto the Rhine-Danube Frontier. The basic Germanic political structure was the tribe, headed by a chief who was elected for his ability as a war leader. It was these tribes that resulted in Rome's losing control of the great frontier. The Roman and Germanic cultures greatly clashed. The Germanic religion was polytheistic, their society was a warrior aristocracy, and finally their societal structure was a mobile one. By 370 A.D., the tribe had become nations led by warrior kings. It was at this time that the Huns swept out of central Asia westward until they encountered two Germanic nations of Visigoths and Ostrogoths.
During the 5th century, as the Roman Empire drew toward its end, numerous Germanic tribes began migrating en masse (Völkerwanderung) in far and diverse directions, taking them to England and northern Scandinavia at the northern tip of Europe and as far south through present day Continental Europe to the Mediterranean and Africa. Over time, the wandering meant intrusions into other tribal territories and the ensuing wars for land claims escalated with the dwindling amount of unoccupied territory. Nomadic tribes then began the staking out of permanent homes as a means of protection. Much of this resulted in fixed settlements from which many, under a powerful leader, expanded outwards. A defeat meant either scattering or merging with the dominant tribe and this continued to be how nations were formed. In England, for example, we now most often refer to the Anglo-Saxons rather than the two separate tribes.
THE GERMANIC TRIBES: Alamanni; Ambrones ;Ampsivarii ;Angles;Angrivarii ;Batavii;Bavarii;Bructeri;Burgundians;Canninefates ;Chamavi ;Chasuarii ;Chauci;Cherusci;Chatti;Cimbri;Dulgubnii ;Fosi ;Franks;Frisians;Geats;Gepidae;Goths: ;Ostrogoths;Visigoths; ;Harii ;Helisii ;Helvetii ;Heruli ;Hermunduri ;Jutes;Langobards;Lemovii ;Lugii ;Manimi ;Marcomanni;Marobudui ;Mattiaci ;Naharvali ;Nemetes ;Nervii;Njars;Quadi;Saxons;Semoni ;Sitones ;Suebi;Suiones;Sugambri;Tencteri ;Teutons;Trevi ;Triboci ;Tudri ;Ubii;Usipetes ;Vandals;Vangiones