Indo-European Linguistics 1

8/11/2019 Indo-European Linguistics 1

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The IndoThe Indo --EuropeanEuropeanFamily of LanguagesFamily of Languages


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The Discovery of the IndoThe Discovery of the Indo --

European Family of LanguagesEuropean Family of Languages

The Discovery of the Indo-EuropeanFamily of Languages

Jacob Grimm Deutsche Grammatic


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FirstFirst GermanicGermanic ConsonantConsonant ShiftShift or or

GrimmGrimm s Laws Law Voiceless plosives became fricatives:

*p > f; *t > ; *k > x Voiced plosives became voiceless:

*b > p; *d > t; *g > k Voiced-aspirate plosives dropped the

aspiration: *bh > b; *dh > d; *gh > g


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father father GreekGreek pat pat r r Old EnglishOld English f f d d er er

over over GreekGreek hyphyp r r Old High German uOld High German u bb ar ar mother mother --inin--law law Greek Greek hekur hekur Old High German swi Old High German swi g g ur ur

Verners Law


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TheThe BranchesBranches thatthat constituteconstitute thethe IndoIndo --EuropeanEuropean FamilyFamily

1. Indian

2. Iranian 3. Armenian 4. Hellenic 5. Albanian 6. Italic 7. Balto-Slavic 8. Germanic 9. Celtic

1. Aryan

2. Indo-Germanic

3. Indo-European


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TwentiethTwentieth --CenturyCentury DiscoveriesDiscoveries

Hittite and Tocharian

HittiteOLD

TESTAMENT


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1907

Boghazki 20,000clay

tabletsBabylonian cuneiform

characters

-

Akkadian


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SaussureSaussure s Hypothesiss Hypothesis

This linguist proposed for the Indo-Europeancertain sound patterns that did not occur in any

of the languages known.

LARINGEALS


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IndoIndo --EuropeanEuropean SyntaxSyntax

A strong argument can now be made that

Hittite and the oldest hymns of the Rig-veda represent the Object-Verb structureof Indo-European, which by the time of Classical Greek and Latin had beenlargely modified to a Verb-Object pattern.


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VocabularyVocabulary

A large proportion of the Hittite vocabularycomes from a non-Indo-European source.

The blending with foreign elementsappears to be as great as in Albanian.


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INDOINDO --HITTITEHITTITE

INDO-EUROPEAN HITTITE


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TOCHARIANTOCHARIAN Early part of Twentieth century in Western

China (Xinjiang Uygur)

Centum language

HELLENICITALIC

GERMANIC

CELTIC

TOCHARIAN


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TheThe HomeHome of of thethe IndoIndo --EuropeansEuropeans

What can be learned of these people and

their early location?

1. Biological descentWide ethnic

diversity


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2. Location omit from consideration

Africa

Australia

America

British Isles

The Peninsulas of SouthernEurope


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EARLY LITERARY TRADITION

The earliest books of the Hindus,for example, the Vedas, show anacquaintance with the Indus butnot with the Ganges

Indo-Europeans entered India from the Northwest

Mainland of Europe

and

the Western part of Asia


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ASIAN OR EUROPEAN ORIGIN?

Asian origin?

1. Biblical tradition

2. The discovery of Sanskrit

3. Hun and TurkInvasions intoEurope

European origin?

1. The larger part of thelanguages of this familyhave been in Europefrom the earliest times towhich our knowledgeextendes.


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VOCABULARY STOCK

WINTER & SNOW

SEA

INLAND

COMMUNITY


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FLORA AND FAUNA KNOWN TOFLORA AND FAUNA KNOWN TO

THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITYTHE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

There are no anciently common Indo-Europeanwords for elephant, rhinocceros, camel, lion,tiger, monkey, crocodile, parrot, rice, banyan,bamboo, palm, but there are common words,more or less widely spread over Indo-Europeanterritory, for snow and freezing cold, for oak,beech, pine, birch, willow, bear, wolf, otter,beaver, polecat, marten, weasel, deer, rabbit,mouse, horse, ox, sheep, goat, pig, dog, eagle,hawk, owl, jay, wild goose, wild duck, partridgeor pheasant, snake, tortoise, crab, and bee,etc.


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BEECH BEE

This tree isconfined toCentralEurope

(Oak in Greek, elder and elmin other languages)

A commonword for honey.

A commonword for theintoxicating drinkmade fromhoney.


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The branches of the Indo-Europeanfamily fall into two well-definedgroups according to the modificationthat certain consonants of the parentspeech underwent in each.

CENTUM(LATIN)

SATEM(AVESTAN)

A line runningroughly fromScandinavia toGreece separatesthe two.


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Recent archaeological findingsRecent archaeological findingsExcavations in Russiaand Ukraine in the lastdecades of the 20th c.

Graves in the steppe areabetween the River Don andUrals have yieldedevidence of an Indo-European Kurgan culturethat existed north of theCaspian Sea from the fifththrough the third millenniaB.C.


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At present it is sufficient to observe that most ofthe proposed locations can be accommodated inthe district east of the Germanic area stretchingfrom central Europe to the steppes of southern

Russia.


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Material CultureMaterial Culture

Places of habitationIt has been concluded that the

Indo-European people did notgroup themselves in cities.

The existence of the word * ui -(from this root was derivedLatin v cus neighbourhood,village) indicates that there

were locations where a familyor clan settled down.

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HousesThe word for house was * d m (from this

root was derived Latin domus ).

The fact that in Gothic a word with thesame root, timrjan , meant tocarpenter indicates that the houseswere made of wood.

The word for door * dhuer - is found in theplural which leads us to believe thathouses most probably had two doors.

Another characteristic explained byvocabulary of the Indo-Europeanlanguages was an area of flooraround a fireplace (Lat. ra , Hitt.Hassa -).

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Eating and drinkingThe verb for cooking has been reconstructed

pekw -. There was also a word for bakingbh (o)H -; and another word for meatm ms -.

Probably they ate acorns, * gwlh2-(e)n -.The word for salt * seh2l - is believed to be a

very archaic term. They knew the honeywhich was used for sweetening * mli .

There is only one word that refers to fruits,apple * h2eb l . They drank mead * medhu .This word also meant the sweet and

honey, thus it is concluded that probablywas a drink based on honey.

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Agriculture

The linguistic evidencesupports the view that theIndo-Europeans were anagricultural civilization.

They have words for sowing theland * seh1 - and also forploughing * h2erh3 -.

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Cattle raising and domestic animalsThe main domesticated animal was the cow,

*gweh3us . Milk was an important elementin their diet since there is a word formilking *h2mel -.

The word for bull probably was * teh2uros .

A lesser role in the community was thatplayed by sheep, * h3euis .The word for lamb is also known: * h2egwnos

(note the Latin term agnus ). A generic word for small livestock was * p u,

taking into account that in Latin we find theterm pec nia money, we should concludethat this kind of livestock was used ascurrency.

The most characteristic animal of the Indo-Europeans was the horse: * h1e uos , andamong their domesticated animals wemust include the dog * un.

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Transport


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ClothingThere is a root for naked * ne/ogw -

; another word for clothingoneself * ues -.

The word * Hou - probably meantputting on footwear.

Beekes seems quite confident

when he affirms that wool wasthe basic material for makingclothing, * HulHn -.

6TransportThe use of wagons is attested by the

existence of the verb * ue h- to carry,

ride.In De Eese in Drenthe in the northeast ofthe Netherlands (from about 2400B.C.) wheels have been found whichwere made of one piece of wood,which shows that they used hugewheels.

Wagons were pulled by oxen * uks- n.Beekes points out that the introduction

of the horse turned out to be a greatadvantage since it was much faster.

There is a word for ship which indicatesthat transport over water was already

in use: * neh2us ship. Thereconstruction of the verb * h1reh1 -rowing probably means that theyhad navigable craft that could berowed.

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Indo-European Linguistics 1

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