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Indo-European and the Indo-European Languages

 

INDO-EUROPEAN AND THE INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

INDO-EUROPEAN (IE) HYPOTHESIS

Most European languages and others (in India, parts of the Middle East, and Asia) are cognates (i.e. are related, as a family, by common origins)

Proto-Indo-European language (PIE), ancestor of Sanskrit, Persian, Latin, Greek, Romance, Germanic, Celtic languages, and others

The Indo-European hypothesis originated in the initial observation of common vocabulary across different languages, e.g.: English mouse, German Maus, Swedish mus, Dutch muis, Latin mus, Greek mus, Russian mys, Polish mysz, Serbo-Croatian mis  -- all of which are derived from a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European original word *mus (Ruhlen) (notice that hypothetical reconstructions of ancient words are indicated by a preceding asterisk, e.g. *mus )

In the absence of written records, the method for reconstructing ancient languages is Comparative Historical Linguistics, which investigates the details and patterns of evolution of known languages in their ancient, medieval and modern forms (e.g. the development from Latin of the modern Romance languages, and the development from Sanskrit of languages of India like Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati). Applying that knowledge to the comparison of the vocabularies and grammars of ancient languages like Latin, Sanskrit and Greek, it becomes possible to make inferences about their prior evolution. In the case of many of the languages of Europe, Iran, and India it has become evident that they originated in a common source, a language spoken north of the Black and Caspian Seas about 5,000 years ago.

Development of Indo-European (IE) theory:

• Awareness of the significant similarities between the languages of Europe and India goes back to the sixteenth century.
• In 1647, the Dutch scholar, Marcus Zuerius Van Boxhorn, hypothesized a common source, which he called "Scythian," for Dutch, Greek, Latin, Persian, and German
• In 1710, the German philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz proposed the name "Japhetic" for the common source of European and Indian languages.
• In 1786, William Jones, an English judge in India delivered a lecture, based on his studies of Sanskrit, on the subject of the common origins of various European and other languages.
• Thomas Young coined the term "Indo-European" (1813)
• Franz Bopp, noted similarities in the verbal systems of the Indo-European languages (1816)
• Rasmus Rask (1818) and Jacob Grimm (1822), noted systematic phonological changes accounting for different pronunciations and forms of words actually related by common origin, e.g. English "father" and Latin "pater"
• August Schleicher, worked on the reconstruction of Proto Indo-European words; he also developed the Stammbaumtheorie (tree stem theory) (1853) to describe the relations of the languages of the Indo-European family

DESCENDANTS OF THE COMMON INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE

Indo-European Language Subfamilies and examples:

• Indo-Iranian (Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Persian)
• Hellenic (Greek)
• Armenian (Western Armenian, Eastern Armenian)
• Balto-Slavic (Russian, Polish, Czech, Lithuanian)
• Albanian (Gheg, Tosk)
• Celtic (Irish Gaelic, Welsh)
• Italic (Latin, Spanish, Italian, French)
• Germanic (German, English, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian)
• Anatolian (extinct) (Hittite, Lydian)
• Tocharian (extinct) (Tocharian A, Tocharian B)

THE ORIGINAL INDO-EUROPEAN PEOPLE

Kurgan culture

It's speculated that the so called Kurgan were the original Indo-European people; lived north of the Black and Caspian Seas, between 5,000-3,000 BC. Some scholars have suggested an earlier homeland in Asia Minor, 6,000-5,000 BC (Renfrew)

"Kurgan" is a Russian word meaning "mound" and refers to the custom of building mounds for burial purposes

The language of the Kurgan people is known to scholars as Proto-Indo-European (PIE) or Common Indo-European (CIE).

Aspects of Kurgan culture: domesticated cattle, dogs, and horses; farming, herding, four-wheeled wagons, mound building, hilltop forts, tight family/kinship relationships and organization; used gold and silver; drank a honey-based alcoholic beverage, mead; multiple gods (sky/thunder, sun, horse, boar, snake); belief in life after death evidenced in elaborate burials (Marija Gimbutas, 1956)

Descendants of words for trees (ash, apple, oak, linden, aspen, pine), animals (bear, wolf), and other objects/concepts (honey, snow, cold, winter, father, mother) in the Indo-European languages allow us to form a picture of their original homeland and culture.

Beginning around 3000 BC the Indo-European people abandoned their homeland and migrated in a variety of directions (found in Greece by 2000-1600 BC, in northern India by 1500 BC)

 

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COMMON INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE

Proto-Indo-European (PIE) or Common Indo-European (CIE): spoken around 5000-3000 BC in areas of Eastern Europe/Western Asia

Phonology

Some examples of Proto-Indo-European phonemes:

stops: [p], [t], [k], [b], [d], [g]

palatal stops: [k^j, [ g^j ] (spelled here as kj, gj) (e.g. the sound of the "ky" in the word "Tokyo")

labiovelar stops: [ k^w], [ g^w] (spelled here as kw, gw and pronounced with rounding of the lips)

aspirated stops (pronounced with a puff of air at the end): [b^h], [d^h], [g^h] [ g^jh ] [ g^wh] (spelled here as bh, dh, gh, gjh, gwh)

at least three so-called "laryngeal" consonants, a glottal stop and voiced and voiceless pharyngeal and/or glottal fricatives (for simplicity all three are spelled " h' " in this document )

vowels: [ ɑ ], [ ε ], [ i ], [ ɔ], [ u ] (spelled here as a, e, i, o, u)

Lexicon/Vocabulary

Examples of Proto-Indo-European words which are very common in the Indo-European languages:

numerals:

*oino, *duo, *treies ... > one, two, three ...

*dekm > ten

*kmtóm > Latin "centum," Avestan "satem," English "hundred"

words for certain body parts:

*kerd > heart

*kaput > head

*ped > foot

*genu > knee

words for certain natural phenomena:

*h'ster > star

*leuk > light

*nekwt > night

*sneigwh > snow

*seh'uol > sun

*yeg > ice

*gel > cold

*wed ("water") > water, winter

*dhghom ("earth") > Latin "homo" ("human" i.e. "earthling")

*stonh' > thunder

certain plant and animal names:

*drou > tree

*bhagos > beech (tree)

*grəno > corn

*ulkwos > wolf

*h'rtkos ("bear") > Latin "ursus"

*laks ("salmon") > lox

*ekwos ("horse") > Latin "equus"

*gwou > cow

certain cultural terms;

*medhu > mead

*dieus ("sky god") > Latin "deus" ("god") , Greek "Zeus"

*melit ("honey") > mellifluous

people and family relations:

*mater > mother

*ph'ter > father

*gwen ("woman") > queen

*man > man

*ghuibh > wife

*ghuibh-man > Old English "wif-man" > Modern English "woman"

*dhughter > daughter

*bhrater > brother

*nepot > nephew

Morphology

The Proto-Indo-European language was inflected. It used inflectional endings, changes in root/stem vowels (ablaut system), and changes in the position of the accent to indicate grammatical information like case, number, tense, person, mood, etc.

The ablaut system (also called apophony or vowel gradation) is characteristic of PIE. A modern English example of ablaut is the change in meaning of the verb "to sing" by changing its root vowel, sing, sang, sung. PIE featured the following variations in root vowels:

e-grade: *sed ("sit") > sit

o-grade: *sod > sat

zero-grade: *sd > ne-st

lengthened e-grade: *sēd > seat

lengthened o-grade: *sōd > soot

An example of how ablaut grades could be used to change the grammatical case of a noun:

*nokwts ("night") (nominative case)

*nekwts ("of the night") (genitive case)

Nouns

PIE nouns came in three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter and three numbers: singular, plural and dual

example: ekwos ("horse"), ekwoses ("horses"), ekwosih' ("two horses")

PIE nouns were inflected for eight cases:

• nominative: subject of a sentence
• vocative: person or thing addressed
• accusative: direct object
• genitive: possessor
• dative: indirect object, recipient
• ablative: source from which, what is separated/distanced
• locative: place where
• instrumental: means by which, instrument

Example:

Reconstructed declension of Indo-European word *EKWOS ("horse") (ancestor of Modern English, "equine," Latin: "equus," and Old English, "eoh")

Singular

Nom	ÉKWOS
Acc	ÉKWOM
Gen	ÉKWOSIO
Dat	EKWŌI
Abl	EKWŌD
Voc	ÉKWE
Loc	ÉKWOI
Ins	ÉKWOH'

Plural

Nom	EKWŌSES
Acc	EKWÓNES
Gen	EKWŌM
Dat	EKWOBHÓS
Abl	EKWOBHÓS

Reconstructed declension of Indo-European word *KWON ("dog") (ancestor of Modern English "hound," "canine" and Latin "canis")

Singular

Nom	KWŌN
Acc	KWONM
Gen	KWNÓS
Dat	KWNÉI
Abl	KWNÓS

Plural

Nom	KWÓNES
Acc	KWÓNNES
Gen	KWNÓM
Dat	KWNEBHÓS
Abl	KWNEBHÓS

Reconstructed present tense conjugation of the verb *GWHEN- to kill

1s	GWHÉNMI
2s	GWHÉNSI
3s	GWHÉNTI
1pl	GWHNMÉS
2pl	GWHNTÉ
3pl	GWHNÉNTI

Based on those reconstructions, what is the meaning of the following expressions?:

KWŌN GWHÉNTI ÉKWOM

ÉKWOM GWHÉNTI KWŌN

GWHÉNTI ÉKWOM KWŌN

KWŌN ÉKWOM GWHÉNTI

How about:

EKWŌSES GWHNÉNTI KWÓNNES

The reconstructed declension of the Indo-European noun *PASTOR "shepherd," is the following:

Singular

Nom	PÁSTOR
Acc	PÁSTERM
Gen	PASTRÓS
Dat	PASTRÉI
Abl	PASTRÓS

Plural

Nom	PASTÓRES
Acc	PASTÓRNES
Gen	PASTRÓM
Dat	PASTREBHÓS
Abl	PASTREBHÓS

What is the meaning of the following expressions?:

PASTRÓS KWŌN

PÁSTOR GWHÉNTI KWONM

PÁSTOR GWHÉNTI KWONM ÉKWOH'

PASTRÓS KWŌNM ÉKWOS GWHÉNTI

Verbs

PIE verbs had six verb tenses:

• present: continuing action in progress (I go)
• imperfect: continuing action in the past (I was going)
• aorist: momentary action in the past (I went)
• perfect: completed action (I have gone)
• pluperfect: completed action in the past (I had gone)
• future: actions to come (I shall go)

PIE verbs had three "voices": active, passive and middle (reflexive)

The " moods" of PIE verbs include:

indicative (fact, "It is raining")

subjunctive (a kind of future-bound mode of expression that emphasized possible upcoming occurrence but present unreality of the situation described, "it might/will rain, but it isn't raining now" -- notice this is somewhat different from the meaning of the subjunctive in modern IE languages)

optative (used to express wishes, alternatives, and hypothetical situations, "I wish it would rain," "if it were raining," "I could do that"),

imperative (command, "Rain!")

Syntax

Indo-European had a flexible word order, tendency to Subject-Object-Verb (SOV)

Prosody/Accent

Indo-European accent could be on any syllable and was characterized by pitch rather than loudness.

The position of the accent affected word meaning/function, e.g. Sanskrit "úsas" ("Oh Dawn!) "usás" ("of the dawn")

 

FROM PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN TO PROTO-GERMANIC

Transition from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) (around 3000 BC) to Proto-Germanic (PGmc) or Common Germanic (CGmc) (around 500-100 BC)

The earliest inscriptions in a Germanic language date from around 160 AD and appear in objects like the so-called Vimose Comb found at Vimose in Funen Island, Denmark. The inscription uses an Old Germanic alphabet known as the Futhark or Runic Alphabet (the world "rune" means "secret") and reads as follows:

Transliterated into the Roman alphabet it reads "HARJA" (meaning probably "army" or "war-troop")

Another famous runic inscription is associated with the Gallehus Horns (c. 400 AD) identifying the workman who made them. Transliterated, the inscription reads:

ek hlewagastiz holtijaz horna tawido

Translated, it roughly means:

I, Hlewagastir Holtson, horn made

Prosody

• Indo-European free, pitch accent became strong stress on the initial syllable in Germanic

Phonology

• loss of Indo-European laryngeal consonants, articulation shifting higher up in the vocal tract
  
  
• Grimm's Law (Jakob Grimm, 1822). Grimm offered an explanation for why certain words in different languages may appear to be unrelated when in reality they have a common origin and sound different only because of certain systematic changes in pronunciation over time. The systematic rules that Grimm noticed were:
  
  
  • Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops (p, t, k) became Germanic voiceless fricatives (f, th, h):
    
    
    • *ph'ter > Germanic (English) father (contrast with non-Germanic Latin pater)
      
      
    • *treies > Germanic (English) three (contrast with non-Germanic: Latin tres)
      
      
    • *kerd > Germanic (English) heart, (compare with non-Germanic: Latin cord)
      
      
  • Proto-Indo-European voiced stops (b, d, g) became Germanic voiceless stops (p, t, k):
    
    
    • *abel > Germanic (English) apple (contrast with non-Germanic: Russian jabloko)
      
      
    • *dent > Germanic (English) tooth (contrast with non-Germanic: Latin dentis)
      
      
    • *grh'no > Germanic (English) corn (contrast with non-Germanic: Latin granum)
      
      
  • voiced aspirated stops (bh, dh, gh) to voiced stops (b, d, g):
    
    
    • *bhrater > Germanic (English) brother (contrast with non-Germanic: Latin frater)
      
      
• Verner's Law (Karl Verner, 1877)
  
  
  • Verner noted an exception to Grimm's Law: sometimes Indo-European voiceless stops (p, t, k ) became Germanic voiced stops (b, d, g) when surrounded by voiced sounds and preceded by unaccented syllable or accent falling after the consonant in question); also s became r; phenomenon explained by Verner as a result of original PIE accent falling after consonant in question:
    
    

• *kmtóm > English hundred (contrast with non-Germanic: Latin centum)
  
  
• *ph'tér > Germanic (Old English) fæder (contrast with non-Germanic: Latin pater)
  
  
• *snusós ("daughter-in-law) > Old English snoru (contrast with non-Germanic: Sanskrit snusá)
  
  

Morphology

• Relative preservation of Indo-European ablaut system: changes in root vowels indicated tense, number, part of speech. The stability of this system was however undermined because the position of the Indo-European accent was related to the vowel changes and the accent/stress became fixed in the Germanic languages.
  
  
• Simplification of the case system. In Germanic there was a fusion of ablative/locative/instrumental/dative and vocative/nominative; three numbers and genders retained
  
  
• The deterioration of the case system (i.e. inflectional endings) is related to the initial-syllable stress patterns of Germanic (final syllables became unstressed or weakly stressed and lost their distinctness).
  
  
• Verbs
  • tense/aspect: change from six to only two: present and past (preterite)
  • mood: retained indicative and imperative and fused subjunctive and optative
  • Germanic created weak verbs (also called dental preterite verbs), featuring a dental sound [d]/[t] at the end to indicate past tense (the ancestor of our regular past tenses: e.g. walked, talked)
    

Syntax

• Germanic retained a relatively free word order, but made greater use of prepositions to compensate for the loss of inflections

Lexicon

• Germanic inheritance of many basic words of the Indo-European vocabulary (e.g. cold, winter, honey, wolf, snow, beech, pine, father, mother, sun, tree, foot, head) and forms for grammatical concepts (negation, interrogation)
• borrowings from Italic, Celtic and Balto-Slavic languages
• large common and unique vocabulary of the Germanic languages (not present in other Indo-European languages and perhaps borrowed from non-Indo-European languages) (e.g. back, blood, body, bone, bride, child, gate, ground, oar, rat, sea, soul)
• extensive use of derivative affixes and compounding to create new words

References

• Marija Gimbutas, "The Beginning of the Bronze Age in Europe and the Indo-Europeans" 1973
• Merritt Ruhlen, The Origin of Language: Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue (New York: John Wiley & Sons,1994).
• Colin Renfrew, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins (London: Pimlico, 1987)
• Benjamin W. Fortson IV, Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004).
• James Clackson, Indo-European Linguistics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)

 

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Last updated: October 4, 2018 17:26