Listening: the origin of English (PIE)
Lower intermediate to advanced level (B1-C1) 

Studies suggest that the origin or roots of English, German, Spanish, Hindi, Russian and about 400 other languages come from what is called ‘Proto-Indo-European’ or ‘PIE’. Listen to what it might have sounded like here:

And this is a translation into English:

The Sheep and the Horses

A sheep that had no wool saw horses, one of them pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a big load, and one carrying a man quickly. The sheep said to the horses: “My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses.” The horses said: “Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself. And the sheep has no wool.” Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.

The geographical origins of PIE are disputed but most people believe they are close to the Black Sea. This has been shown by the statistical analysis of different languages and the genetic analysis of people (alive and long dead).

The spread and gradual evolution of PIE explains why key words in many languages are similar. This should make learning certain languages a little easier!

Click here for the full article from Big Think  http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/half-of-all-languages-come-from-one-root-language-how-it-spread-is-something-of-debate