4,000 Years Ago...

"The driver pulled up on the reins to slow his team of horses in time. An Egyptian chariot had emerged from a cloud of dust. The Egyptian chariots carried just two people, a driver and archer. The Hittites had crews of three, a driver, archer and spearman. The Egyptian bowman was surprised by the oncoming Hittite vehicle, speeding right for him. He tried to ready an arrow, but the Hittites were too close. The spearman made a quick thrust and the Egyptian driver fell. Out of control, the chariot flipped and crashed. The Hittites cheered, but the thud of an arrow striking the wooden wall of the chariot cut them short. Four more Egyptian chariots had pulled into view. The Hittite crew looked around, but they were alone..."

This was the time of a great movement of peoples from the region around northern India and central Asia into western Asia and Europe. The migrations did not happen all at once, but occurred over a long period of time, hundreds of years. Gradual climate changes, that dried up rivers, or cataclysmic events like floods and earthquakes may have been the cause. These were the Aryans, they used chariots and were known by their enemies as fierce warriors. Few real details are known about these people, even the language they spoke. It is thought they all spoke a group of similar languages. Aryan, Indo-European and Iranian are three different terms used for this family of languages that are now spoken from India to the Atlantic shore of Europe. (In this case, "Iranian" does not refer to the modern nation of Iran.) Both Iran and Ireland, for example, mean "land of the Aryans". Whether or not there was once a single "Aryan" language or people is not known, but it is likely the first Aryan-speaking people lived in northern India. Because of Adolf Hitler's misuse of the word "Aryan", most people now use the term Indo-European. The Indo-European language groups include Latin (French, Spanish, Italian), Greek, Slavic (Russian, Polish, Serbian), Germanic (German, Dutch, English), Iranian (Armenian, Persian, Pashtoo) and north Indian (Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati). Even after thousands of years, some words are still similar. "Ab" in Pakistan means water or river. In Wales, a word for river is "aber". The number two in Hindi and Persian is "doe", not too different from "dos" in Spanish, "deux" in French, or even "two".