Yoga or Yoge
Added 2021-05-17 01:15:04 +0000 UTCNow a days even Indians pronounce “Yoga” as we do here in the US. But it wasn’t always like that. The original Sanskrit pronunciation is better represented by “Yoge”, as it rhymes with “robe”, as in bathrobe.
When pronounced that way we can more easily see yoga’s resemblance to the word “yoke”, as in yoking an ox to a cart. “Yoga” refers to the philosophical idea that we are all “yoked together’’, that we are all one.
This similarity between “yoge” and “yoke”, both in meaning and pronunciation reveals another astonishing fact: that English and Sanskrit are related! They are both descended from a common ancient language that historical linguists call PIE, short for Proto-Indo European.
PIE was the language of a group of early pastoral tribes who were cattle herders and horse riders. Most scholars believe these tribes lived in Central Asia, in the Pontic region, north of the Caspian sea (though, it should be pointed out, there are people who vehemently dispute that).
Story goes some of these tribes migrated west and settled Europe. Another group of them headed eastward, settling first in present day Iran, and some heading further onwards, through the Himalayan passes, to north west India.
According to this research, these ancient cattle herders who made it to India developed Sanskrit, wrote down the Vedas, and gave us Yoga.
