Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans

"The Appendix of Indo-European Roots (Appendix I) that follows this essay is designed to allow the reader to trace English words derived from Indo-European languages back to their fundamental components in Proto-Indo-European, the parent language of all ancient and modern Indo-European languages. This essay provides some basic information about the structure and grammar of Proto-Indo-European as an aid to understanding the etymologies of these English words. In the text below, terms in boldface are Indo-European roots and words that appear as entries in Appendix I. Words in small capitals are Modern English derivatives of Indo-European roots. An asterisk (*) is used to signal a word or form that is not preserved in any written documents but that can be reconstructed on the basis of other evidence."