Is Russian a Sanskrit-based language?

Once again I was very surprised that I was misinformed about Russian. However, it is true that it is hard to find someone really knowledgeable on this subject because for most people this is very esoteric unless you are a Linguistics professor at a College or university somewhere on earth. 

So, even trying to find someone knowledgeable enough to answer this question in a satisfactory way might be almost impossible for most people to even form the question in the first place. 

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No, Russian is not a Sanskrit-based language, but both languages are related as "sister languages" or "cousins" that descended from a common ancestor, Proto-Indo-European (PIE). Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family, while Russian is a member of the Balto-Slavic branch. Therefore, they share a distant relationship through a common linguistic heritage, not a direct lineage where one is the ancestor of the other. 

The Shared Ancestry

• Indo-European Language Family:

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Both Sanskrit and Russian belong to the Indo-European language family, a vast group of languages that originated from a hypothetical common ancestor known as Proto-Indo-European (PIE). 

Sanskrit is a member of the Indo-Aryan branch of this family, while Russian belongs to the Balto-Slavic branch. 

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Similarities and Differences

• Shared Features:

  Due to their common Indo-European origin, Russian and Sanskrit exhibit similarities in grammar and phonetics at a basic level, such as the structure of consonantism and the ability to form compound words. 

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• What are the similarities between Russian and Sanskrit?

  Feb 17, 2013

  

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Linguistic Branches:

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"Sister" vs. "Distant" Languages:

The relationship between Russian and Sanskrit is best described as "sister" languages, similar to how Latin and English are related, with a common ancestor but not a direct ancestor-descendant relationship. 

Distinct Paths of Evolution:

After the split from PIE, these languages evolved independently along separate paths, resulting in the modern distinct languages we know today. 

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