Proto-Indo-European Research Articles

Twenty-first-century light over the Indo-European homeland: triangulating language, archaeology and genetics

The reviewed volumes represent the past and future of triangulating human prehistory. Both works address the integration of the knowledge embedded in the Indo-European group of languages into the interpretation of archaeological and genetic data, but approach this very differently. By enlisting the expertise of scholars from the three different fields, with 22 contributions from more than 40 scholars from more than 10 different countries, The Indo-European puzzle revisited is both a seminal work and a resounding commentary on the, by its very nature, limited perspectives voiced by Jean-Paul Demoule as a sole archaeologist author of his book The Indo-Europeans. The title of the former is based on the subtitle of Colin Renfrew's Archaeology and language: the puzzle of Indo-European origins (1987), another archaeologist's foray into historical linguistics.

MILK-SUCKING "THIEVES" IN INDO-EUROPEAN FOLKLORE: AN ETYMOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ZOONYMS

The paper investigates the etymologies of several species of reptiles, amphibians, and birds whose names draw on the ancient cattle-sucker myths rooted in cultures of Indo-European origin. New or corrected explanations are suggested for a number of animal names, including the Lithuanian žal(k)tỹs 'grass snake', South Slavic *guja 'snake, viper', Hittite akuu̯akuu̯aš 'toad', which seem to confirm a primitive conviction of prehistoric people that some frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, and even birds drink milk and are able to take it directly from udders.

On Indo–European /H/

The existence of a phoneme /h/ in Proto–Indo–European is still the subject of debate in academic circles. While the supporters of the laryngeal theory take its existence foregranted along with other phonemes of an abstractly laryngeal nature, the detractors of this theory are basically divided between those who deny its existence and those others, supporters of the so–called monolaryngealist theory, who do accept its existence.

The Origin of the Scythians and the Identity of the Scythians and the Alans in John Tzetzes’ Work

Much has been said about the origin of the Scythians, but no academician or researcher has ever been able to provide evidence to reveal the identity of the Scythians. Today, the prevailing view about the origin of the Scythians is the view that they are of Indo-European origin. And this argument is supported by Western academics. No written sources say that the Scythians were of Indo-European origin or spoke an Indo-European language. The only thing that makes those a community of Indo-European origin is the arbitrary explanations of the personal names belonging to their language in Indo-European languages and the kinship relationship established between the Ossetians and Alans. No consistent explanation of the words of the Scythian language in Indo-European languages has been provided to date. However, very recently, in the light of written sources, more than one piece of evidence has been presented to shed light on the origins of the Scythians. This article aims to reveal the true identity of the Scythians and Alans in the work of the 12th-century Byzantine writer John Tzetzes in the ligt of these new evidences.

When words coalesce II

Abstract This article is a sequel to my contribution entitled “When words coalesce: chunking and morphophonemic extension” in the volume The Indo-European verb (ed. H. Craig Melchert, 2012: 87–104), and intends to document cases of preverb incorporation for Proto-Indo-European (PIE). Although preverbs occurred as free morphemes with finite verbs in PIE, they could also, under conditions to be specified, undergo a change of their morphemic status from free to bound. I discuss a number of such cases and the conditions under which preverbs could undergo destressing, phonologically regular or irregular reduction, and ultimately fuse with following verbal root morphemes.

Latin verbal morphology and the diachronic development of its thematic and athematic constructions

Abstract This paper investigates the verbal morphology of Latin in terms of the theoretical framework of Distributed Morphology (DM). In addition to providing a synchronic analysis of the verbal system of Latin, this paper discusses the development of the thematic vowel system and of athematic perfect forms in this language from their reconstructed Proto-Indo-European (PIE) antecedents and demonstrates the role of morpho-syntactic structure in constraining the historic analyses, and specifically the role that morpho-syntactic locality played in this historical development. It will be shown that despite radical changes in the exponence, the morpho-syntax and the semantics, of the verbal forms, the (local) structural relation between roots as the repositories of idiosyncratic morphological information and aspectual morphemes displaying special (irregular) exponents was consistently preserved across the millennia.

«Նապաստակը» իրանական լեզուներում. տաբու ,հնաբանություններ և նորաբանություններ

The presented article discusses the attested forms of the word “hare” in old, middle and new Iranian languages. It has been shown that, except for some Eastern Iranian languages, the attested and still used forms are lexical innovations, which are a result of the tabooisation of inherited archaic form. An attempt is made to show the inherited Iranian form of Indo-European origin, which was used for the zoonym "hare" before its tabooisation and reduction of the use of geography.

Ethnos with Turkish Ancestry in the Toponymic Background of the Territory of Azerbaijan

Objective: Research shows that parallel toponyms exist in different types of toponymy, including oikonymy, oronymy, and hydronymy. Comparative analysis of parallel toponyms reveals that the people's ethnic origin, household, economic activity, and other areas are reflected here. Agriculture, cattle breeding, primarily sheep and horse breeding, crafts, and other fields had a special place in the life of the Turkic peoples. The mentioned economic fields are also of some importance in the toponymy of Azerbaijan. The large number of toponymic parallels of Azerbaijan and other Turkic-speaking countries once again proves the settlement of Turkic-speaking peoples in these areas since ancient times. Method: Every event or object can be studied from a certain point of view, which reflects the ultimate task of cognition. In the research process, certain concepts were clarified by using analysis and synthesis methods. Results: Examining the dictionary of geographical names of Turkic-speaking countries, information books, maps, and other materials shows that the toponyms of the countries of the Turkic world correspond to each other according to their linguistic affiliation, origin, and meaning. It is known that each of the Turkic peoples has its own ethnic name and language. Conclusions: Examining the residing areas of Turkic-speaking peoples elucidates that unlike peoples of Indo-European origin who settled in different continents, Turks live in the areas where they historically lived. These areas mainly cover a large extent, including some parts of the Asian continent, southeastern Europe, the northern part of the Caucasus, the South Caucasus, and South Azerbaijan. The units involved in the processes of the generation of names in the Azerbaijani system of toponyms are different, and this difference is clearly manifested. Toponyms are created gradually and in a consistent manner. When giving a geographic name to any object, all aspects of the language to which the name belongs are carefully contemplated. In this case, when conducting research on the origin of a toponym, it becomes easier and more reliable to find out to which language the object belongs. Research conducted for many years shows that most toponyms in the region, as well as paleotoponyms, are of ancient Turkish-Azerbaijani origin. These geographical names occupy a vital place in the toponymic stratification of Azerbaijan.

The Indo-European (IE) Linguistic Spread and the ‘Homeland Problem’ Revisited

The nineteenth and early twentieth-century intellectual claim to European ancestry stems from the ‘Aryan Myth’—the linguistic equating of Iranians as direct descendants of Aryans, or Indo-Europeans. The historical genesis of the word ‘Aryan’ was influenced by The First Persian Empire (550-330 B.C.E.) in reference to an Iranian homeland, and by nineteenth-century Western linguists’ associations with the ancestral Indo-Europeans (IE).1 Notable philologists examining the ‘homeland problem’ have shown a standard concern towards the accuracy of scholarship on Indo-European origins. Ara (2008) decodes Indo-European origins and spread that gradually led to affiliations between Indo-Iranians and the ‘Aryan’ label. The onomastics approach would suggest that the proto-language left identifiable clues in the landscape itself (Mallory & Adams, 2006, p. 447). Dyen’s (1956) linguistic migration and homeland theory cites a European homeland accepted since the nineteen hundreds. Nichols’ (1997) analysis of the Indo-European migrations from 4,000 to 3,500 B.C.E. points to a locus of language dispersal within western central Asia (p. 134). Mallory (1989) and Kuzmina (1994a) favor a Proto-Indo-European homeland in the Pontic-Caspian steppe region from the fifth to fourth millennium B.C.E.2 (Lamberg-Karlovsky, 2004, p. 142). The accurate whereabouts of the Indo-European and daughter Indo-Iranian language group have been reviewed from various fields and by abundant methodologies, including the eschatological, anthropological, linguistic, and archaeological—all adding to the convoluted nature of scholarship on the Aryan question. The academic search for an Iranian homeland raises the inquiry of how ethnicity and region become tantamount to politicized and prejudiced topics on the account of misappropriations of a linguistic concept. An archaeological and lexicostatistic excavation of the conservative nature to review the genesis of Aryan homeland origins may help diverge from the aggrandized ethnological, ethnographic, and anthropometric evidence that has ramified an essentialist nomenclature of the Indo-Iranians in the eighteen and nineteen hundreds.

Indoevropejskoe proiskhozhdenie: opredelenie mestonahozhdeniya prarodiny narodov – nositelej praindoevropejskogo yazyka

The article considers a complex of problems related to the Indo-European origin. The study made it possible to determine the place where the ancestral homeland of the Proto-Indo-European language carriers was located. The time of the origin of the Proto-Indo-European language is determined: approximately 6,000 years ago. The information obtained is in good agreement with the conclusions of independent researchers. In addition, the results indicate a correlation between genetics and languages of the Indo-Europeans, i.e., correspond to the modern global systematic assessment of genetic and linguistic coincidences.

Epigenome-wide methylation study identified 2 novel CpGs associated with T2DM risk and a network of co-methylated CpGs capable of patient's classifications.

Prevention of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) pandemic needs markers that can precisely predict the disease risk in an individual. Alterations in DNA methylations due to exposure towards environmental risk factors are widely sought markers for T2DM risk prediction. To identify such individual DNA methylation signatures and their effect on disease risk, we performed an epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) in 844 Indian individuals of Indo-European origin. We identified and validated methylation alterations at 2 novel CpG sites in MIR1287 (cg01178710), and EDN2-SCMH1 (cg04673737) genes associated with T2DM risk at the epigenome-wide-significance-level (p < 1.2x10-7). Further, we also replicated the association of 2 known CpG sites in TXNIP, and CPT1A in the Indian population. With 535 EWAS significant CpGs (p < 1.2x10-7) identified in the discovery phase samples, we created a co-methylation network using weighted correlation network analysis and identified 4 modules among the CpGs. We observed that methylation of one of the module associates with T2DM risk factors (e.g. BMI, insulin, C-peptide) and can be used as markers to segregate T2DM patients with good glycemic control (e.g. low HbA1c) and dyslipidemia (low HDL and high TG) from the other patients. Additionally, an intronic SNP (rs6503650) in the JUP gene, a member of the same module, associated with methylation at all the 14 hub CpG sites of that module as methQTL. Our network-assisted epigenome-wide association study is the first to systematically explore DNA methylation variations conferring risks to T2DM in Indians and use the identified risk CpG sites for patient segregation with different clinical outcomes. These findings can be useful for better stratification of patients to improve the clinical management and treatment effects.

Morphological and phonological origins of Albanian nasals and its parallels with other laws

The Albanian language is traditionally divided between the Gheg dialect to the geographic north and the now Standard Tosk dialect to the geographic south. Recent literature of the historically isolated dialect of Malsia Madhe (Dedvukaj 2022) has revealed a subdialect which has not undergone the specific phonological sound changes seen in both the Standard Tosk and Modern Gheg dialects. The Tosk dialect is distinct from the dialects of Gheg and Malsia Madhe (Malsia) in that it contains homorganic nasal-stop clusters in positions where they did not occur in various Proto-Indo-European (PIE) reconstructed forms. Three historical processes and the distinct ways in which nasal-stop clusters appear in Tosk are discussed: homorganic nasal assimilation that occurred in the 16th–18th centuries, the insertion of epenthetic stops due to sonority constraints and analogical extension, and constraints on the analogy that can be attributed to the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP), which restricts Tosk Albanian to one nasal-stop cluster within a single morpheme.

Semantic and Formal Image of Concepts Related to “Sensory Perceptions” Preserved from the Indo-European Language in the Dialect Area

Syunik and Artsakh (Kharabagh) are the greatest dialectical areas in the Armenian language which has a rich vocabulary. In the dialectical vocabulary there are large number of words of Indo-European origin which are missing not only in other dialects but also in many languages of Indo-European origin. One of the problems of comparative linguistics is that etymological studies do not pay much attention to dialectical vocabulary. The study of the words of the thematic group “Sensory Perceptions” can provide important material on the religious-philosophical issues of the peoples living in the historical area. An attempt was made to study the old words of the dialect area of Syunik and Artsakh, which refer to “sensory perceptions”. In this work a new dialectical work is being etymologized: shapaghwith the meaning “1.Reflexion, flash, 2. Ra-diant, bright, shiny” which has a different phonetical and semantical version in the Armenian translation of the “Bible”: shaghpaghp. An attempt was made to check the word simultaneously and to discover its perception in the most ancient examples of the translation of the Bible by using the historical-comparative method. Often, through the etymology of archaisms preserved in the language, valuable information is revealed about the religious-philosophical understandings of the ancient world.

«Словарь морфем русского языка» о фонетическом варьировании русских корней

The present article investigates variation in the forms of word roots as presented in the “Dictionary of Morphemes of the Russian Language” by A. I. Kuznetsova and T. F. Efremova (Moscow, 1986). The following conclusions are drawn: the root is a historical concept, and its composition should be determined in relation to a specific historical era: Proto-Indo-European (PIE), Proto-Slavic or Common-Slavic (in the East or South Slavic version).The allophones of the roots of PIE antiquity {e/o/ø} represent a hyperphoneme, with a morphologized distribution of alternative forms, and the lexical meaning of such roots is expressed by consonants and sonants. The closer to the root, the further away from modernity. The division of a word into morphemes should be carried out to the maximum historical depth. A derived word is not a point in an affixal coordinate system, but a trajectory with a number of steps equal to the number of affixes.

Beekeeping in Celtic and Indo-European

This article reconstructs where, when and how Celtic speakers adopted beekeeping on the basis of the Celtic apicultural vocabulary. Following a short introduction giving the archaeological and historical background of beekeeping, it is argued that Celtic inherited a lexicon for bee produce from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), but not for bees or beehives. The various external sources and internal derivations for the remaining words in the apicultural lexicon are then employed to reconstruct in what periods and from what sources Celtic speakers adopted beekeeping. This reconstruction demonstrates that bee domestication by IE speakers post-dates PIE. A European lexicon can be reconstructed for bees, drones and hollow beehives, implying that sylvestrian beekeeping was adopted by IE speakers soon after their migration into Europe. A Proto-Celtic (PC) layer relating to swarming suggests that PC speakers achieved more intimate knowledge of beekeeping, while words for beehives are of even later date, suggesting continued innovation in hive-building techniques after the break-up of Celtic.

Etymological comments

The article deals with the origin of the Armenian words&nbsp; kcist 'thorne', xał 'to call, to cry'.. The word kcist&nbsp; was considered of unknown origin (R.Acharyan, G.Jahukyan). Giving semantic and phonetic parallels from other I.-E Languages (Slavic ‘Needle Leaf, Coniferous Tree Branches', .air. scē, pl.gen. sciad&nbsp; ‘Gooseberry') is offered the Indo-European origin of Armenian kcist. The word xał &nbsp;(as part of the words xałapatil, xałapatan)&nbsp; G.Jahukyan with some doubt connected to the I.-E. * kel- 'call, invoke', &nbsp;but taking into account the meaning of root * kel- 'to call, to cry', and the reflections in the other I.-E.languages, the I.-E. origin is proposed for this word too without any doubt.

Mapping World Language: is Proto-Indo-European the First one?

The origin of language was very complicated in terms of its sources from human being characters and its evolution carried out by over millions of human being generations from ancient creatures to current modern humankind. In this simple work, a language mapping was extracted from many different scientific heritages and references study so that the obvious understanding of it can be easily viewed even by an ordinary people. Furthermore, the relationship among many diversities of language is identified conveniently. This piece of research suggests that language was started from the very first beginning of human being creature on earth. In addition, it is eventually assumed that such “first language” is well-known as Proto-Indo-European (PIE) with the limitations of Asian and Africa language historical evidences. The reason might be associated with the educational and cultural system of life in both continents.

Gothic leiþu, “strong drink; fruit wine?” and its Cognates in the Germanic Languages

Gothic <i>leiþu</i>, “strong drink; fruit wine?” and its Cognates in the Germanic Languages

Between Synchrony and Diachrony: The Multimodal Nature of Phonaesthemes

Knowledge about phonaesthesia has particularly been deepened since 1930 until now. Starting from John Wallis’ first thoughts on the subject in 1653 via the contributions from John Rupert Firth’s post-1930s’ studies, the phenomenon has seen a growing interest as the result of the consolidated – but still to some extent arbitrary – interactions between meaning and sound over time. This paper focuses on some relevant issues in the field of diachronic linguistics, especially in connection with etymological reconstruction, to evaluate phenomena that, in a certain sense, appear to be correlated with the idea of a posteriori re-motivation by the speaker, investigating phonaesthemes’ conceptual organization around some meaningful morpho-phonological clusters derived from Proto Indo-European, always connected with analogical associations. It also reasons about the stability of the root itself, due to fundamental characteristics of human cognition and broader social contexts in which language is used. Besides diachrony, the psycholinguistic relevance of phonaesthemic clusters is synchronically highlighted both in productivity – especially within the Germanic branch, English above all – and in comprehension processes, because their faciliatory priming effect seems to guide the speaker towards a better experience of understanding and to ease the progressive and natural addition of patterned neologisms after an existing word, in order to make them compatible with the original sets. The purpose of this contribution is to offer a general overview of the issue, trying, at the same time, to show how the phenomenon of phonaesthesia can also be read in the interaction between synchrony and diachrony, even if synchrony, for obvious reasons, remains the privileged investigation filter.

Unveiling the Enigmatic Origins of Sardinian Toponyms

With the boom in Indo-European (IE) studies among linguists from the early 20th century, toponymic studies on European place names have been largely based on the Proto-Indo-European (PIE). However, historical and archaeological records of non-IE groups, such as the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia, have presented the possibility of pre-IE/non-IE (Paleo-Sardinian) linguistic stratum influences on certain toponyms in Sardinia, Italy. This article aims to present a meta-study on existing toponymic reconstructions theorized by scholars, while offering a fresh perspective by employing methods of historical phonetic chains and sequences analysis to identify toponyms of interest. Analysis showed that certain Sardinian toponyms contain striking phonetic sequences that are uncharacteristic of PIE, such as *s(a)rd-, *kar-, *-ini, *-ài/*-éi, *#[θ]-. Overall conclusions appear to display the merits of (1) PIE and (2) pre-IE/ non-IE theories. Both provide plausible toponymic reconstructions. (1) The accuracy of IE theories is brought into question, as they appear to rely heavily on phonetic links to existing PIE roots, sometimes with a lack of consideration for other contextual or hydro-geo-morphological factors. (2) Conversely, pre-IE/non-IE theories are found to be highly speculative due to the lack of historical data, and knowledge, about the Paleo-Sardinian language.