Proto-Indo-European Research Articles

Palaeolinguistics and Ancient Eurasian Pulse Crops

Traditional pulse crops such as pea, lentil, field bean, bitter vetch and chickpea were a part of the human diet in hunter-gatherer communities and are one of the most ancient cultivated crops. It was found that the Proto-Indo-European language had the largest number of roots directly related to pulses, such as *arnk(')- (a leguminous plant), *bhabh- (field bean), *erəgw[h]- (a kernel of leguminous plant; pea), *ghArs- (a leguminous plant), *kek-, *k'ik'- (pea) and *lent- (lentil), confirming their essential place in the nutrition of Proto-Indo-Europeans. Pea was most important among the Proto-Uralic people, while pea and lentil were most significant among the Proto-Altaic people. Pea and field bean were common among Caucasians and Basques, and field bean and lentil among the Afro-Asiatic peoples. Palaeolinguistics may contribute to archaeobotany in understanding the role of traditional Eurasian pulse crops had in the everyday life of ancient Europeans together with plant scientists and archaeobotanists.

The Old Phrygian word for ‘feet’: new readings in the ‘podas’-inscription (G-02)

AbstractIn this article, new readings are proposed for the Old Phrygian inscription G-02, which is famous for having been written next to a depiction of two feet, and for containing the sequence podas, which is commonly interpreted as denoting ‘feet’ and reflecting Proto-Indo-European *pod-/ped-. A careful examination of the damaged part of this inscription reveals the presence of a word petes, however, which is argued to be a better candidate for representing the Old Phrygian word for ‘feet’. Not only does this interpretation yield a better understanding of the composition of the inscription as a whole, it is also in accordance with the so-called Phrygian “Lautverschiebung”, which states that PIE mediae have become voiceless stops in Phrygian.

Noch einmal zum Heldenzorn bei Marko Kraljević und Achilleus

With the following paper the author responds to criticism concerning his argument about the origin of the legend of the Trojan War and about the role the wrath of Achilleus played in the development of Greek epic tradition. It is shown that the Serbian song of „Marko Kraljević and Mina of Kostur“ indeed represents the story-pattern of an insulted hero who reacts with anger and withdrawal from fighting and therewith forces his king to make amends. As there are similar stories in the Indian and Iranian epic traditions, the story-pattern is probably of Indo-European origin and represents an oral tradition that precedes the „Iliad“.

The Origin and Role of the Proto-Indo-European Augment: How did the augment indicate the past?

The Origin and Role of the Proto-Indo-European Augment: How did the augment indicate the past?

THE ETYMOLOGIES OF ΒΑΣΙΛΕϒΣ AND ΕΡΜΗΝΕϒΣ

Nouns and personal names ending in –εύς –ῆϝος are unique to Greek, and have often been deemed pre-Hellenic in origin simply on account of the lack of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) correspondences. Our failure to find convincing etymologies for βασιλεύς, ἑρμηνεύς, and βραβεύς has itself contributed to this view. However, we should hesitate, for general reasons, to posit pre-Hellenic origins for these words, since viable explanations both of βασιλεύς and of ἑρμηνεύς (if not of βραβεύς) lie near to hand. Although the explanation of βασιλεύς that will be proposed below still presents difficulties, I believe that it improves on previous attempts.

Did murmur spread in Pre-Proto-Indo-European?

Abstract The reconstructed stop consonants of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) present something of an anomaly from the perspective of linguistic typology. Whereas murmured (breathy-voiced) stops are cross-linguistically rare (indeed, they are non-existent in nine of the ten historic branches of the Indo-European languages), they are more widespread in the lexicon of PIE than their plain-voiced counterparts. In this paper we present statistical evidence to establish that the preponderance of murmured stops in PIE is atypical, and propose a novel explanation for their distribution: namely, that murmur - already present in pre-Proto-Indo- European - was in the process of spreading through the PIE lexicon to the plainvoiced stops especially in initial position. We suggest some possible phonetic mechanisms that may have given rise to the spread of murmur.

Once more on Hittite ā/e-ablauting ḫi-verbs

Abstract The theory that Proto-Indo-European knew a “h₂e-conjugation” with an *o/e-ablauting acrostatic paradigm (Jasanoff 1979; Jasanoff 2003) relies heavily on the existence of Hittite ā/e-ablauting ḫi-verbs. In Kloekhorst 2012a I have argued that none of these ā/e-ablauting verbs can be original. In a reaction to this article, Melchert (2013) raises objections to a number of my arguments and concludes that some of the ā/e-ablauting verbs must be original and that therefore the Hittite material does support the “h₂e-conjugation” theory. In the following article I will discuss in detail all points on which Melchert and I disagree, and argue that his objections do not hold, and that the Hittite ā/e-ablauting ḫi-verbs cannot be used as evidence in favor of the “h₂e-conjugation” theory.

On the early origins of the Germanic preterite presents

AbstractWe deal with the origins of the Germanic preterite presents within the Proto‐Indo‐European (PIE) verb system, highlighting the problems encountered when linking these verbs to existing PIE categories. We argue for the existence of a PIE ‘derived stative’ verb category formed by adding stative inflections to eventive (aorist) roots. Morphologically this category resembles the PIE perfect, but it is unreduplicated; semantically, it denotes a pure state, not a resultant state. This category may be the origin of most of the fifteen Germanic preterite presents. The derived stative category may also be seen as the missing link between the PIE root stative and the PIE perfect.

The outcome of PIE *-ē̆i̯(C)# and *-ē̆u̯(C)# in Germanic

By suggesting an interconnected series of soundlaws for the outcome of Proto-Indo-european (PIE) falling e-vowel diphthongs in final syllables in Proto-Germanic (PG) and in the individual Germanic languages, viz. PIE *-ei̯(C)# > PG *-ai(C)#, PIE *-ēi̯(C)# > PG *-ei(C)#, PIE *-eu̯(C)# > PG *-au(C)#, and PIE *-ēu̯(C)# > PG *-eu(C)#, this article renders superfluous the old, prevalent assumption of competing o-grade allomorphs in some of the oblique cases of the PIE i- and u-stems. Consequently, the i-stem gen.sg. is reconstructed only as PIE *-ei̯s (not as †-ois in addition), the u-stem gen.sg. only as *-eu̯s (not as †-ou̯s), the u-stem loc.sg. only as *-ēu̯ (not as †-ōu̯), the u-stem voc.sg. only as *-eu̯(not as †-ou̯), etc.

Book review: The Development of the Proto-Indo-European Syllabic Liquids in Greek, written by van Beek, L.C.

Book review: The Development of the Proto-Indo-European Syllabic Liquids in Greek, written by van Beek, L.C.

‘Nose’ in Armenian

Armenian has two main signifiers for ‘nose’, k‘it‘ and pinc‘, both remaining obscure. Presumably, they have no Indo-European origin. Body-part names usually are not borrowed. They present predominantly genuine (or substrate) forms, including ideophones, based on internal resources of the language, or terms, shaped through semantic shift of metaphors. Incidentally, the essential part of the Armenian body-part names includes lexemes of the clear IE provenance. The paper attempts to summarise the relevant material on and trace the possible background of the above terms.

Prehistory by Bayesian phylogenetics? The state of the art on Indo-European origins

Bayesian analysis has come to be widely used in archaeological chronologies and has been a regular feature of recent articles inAntiquity. Its application to linguistic prehistory, however, has proved controversial, in particular on the issue of Indo-European origins. Dating and mapping language distributions back into prehistory has an inevitable fascination, but has remained fraught with difficulty. This review of recent studies highlights the potential of increasingly sophisticated Bayesian phylogenetic models, while also identifying areas of concern, and ways in which the models might be refined to address them. Notwithstanding these remaining limitations, in the Indo-European case the results from Bayesian phylogenetics continue to reinforce the argument for an Anatolian rather than a Steppe origin.

Microvariation in the Languages of the Iberian Peninsula

This issue of the Catalan Journal of Linguistics was conceived with the idea to promote comparative studies of the languages spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. The importance of comparison in linguistics dates back to neogrammarians in the xix century due to their interest of discovering the common roots of most of the languages spoken in Europe. In order to get to that objective, comparison of phonological patterns were crucial to retrieve the common Indo-European origins. In the generative framework variation and comparison was not highlighted until the advent of Lectures on Government and Binding (Chomsky 1981), which marks the beginning of the Principles and Parameter theory. A parameter, in its original conception, is a principle with a dimension of variability with respect to a specific syntactic property (Head-initial or Head-final, Node for Subjaceny: S or S’). This variation can be expressed with the values + or –, and each value is associated to a series of syntactic correlations. This framework tried to capture in a formal and elegant way what Greenberg (1963) had already noticed in the 60s: variation among languages is not random and unpredictable, but languages have very specific patterns of variation. One finds correlations and clusters of properties that go together. The idea of parameter gave shape to this intuition by connecting a specific property of the language to a cluster of effects. Thus, in the first formulation of pro-drop (Rizzi 1982), strong person morphology in a language derived a series of properties (null subject, subject inversion, lack of that-trace effect). More than 30 years have passed and the theory has moved on since then; however, the idea of finding correlations among languages is still intriguing and crucial for understanding our language faculty. Kayne (2000, 2005, 2010) has taken this line of approach very seriously. He has shown that theoretical advances must be made through comparative tools. He started this line of approach in his classic comparative studies between English-French, then moved French-Italian and finally further

Reconstructing passive and voice in Proto-Indo-European

This article examines various aspects of the reconstruction of the passive in Proto-Indo-European (PIE), foremost on the basis of evidence from the Indo-Aryan (Early Vedic) and Greek branches. In Proto-Indo-European the fundamental distinction within the verbal system is between the active and middle, while specialized markers of the passive are lacking and the passive syntactic pattern is encoded with middle inflection. Apart from the suffix *-i̯(e/o)- (for which we cannot reconstruct a passive function in the proto-language) and several nominal derivatives, we do not find sufficient evidence for specialized passive morphology. The role of the middle (and stative) in the expression of the passive in ancient IE languages raises important theoretical questions and is a testing ground for the methods of syntactic reconstruction. We will examine the contrast between non-specialized and specialized markers of the passive in Early Vedic and Greek. Most Indo-European languages have abandoned the use of middle forms in passive patterns, while Greek is quite conservative and regularly uses middle forms as passives. In contrast, Indo-Aryan has chosen a different, anti-syncretic, strategy of encoding detransitivizing derivational morphology, though with the middle inflection consistently preserved in passive ya-presents. These two branches, Indo-Aryan and Greek, arguably instantiate two basic types of development: a syncretic type found in many Western branches, including Greek, and an anti-syncretic type attested in some Eastern branches, in particular in Indo-Aryan.

ALLEIN AUF WEITER FLUR? DIE INDOGERMANISCHE PRONOMINALFLEXION IM TYPOLOGISCHEN VERGLEICH

Alone in the dark? The Indo-European pronominal inflection from a typological point of view The article gives an outline of the inflectional peculiarities of Proto-Indo-European and its daughter languages, comparing it with unrelated languages, which show hardly any parallels to its pronominal inflection. The latter, constituting a functionally unmotivated divergence from the nominal paradigms, is presented as a probably recent development, which on the other side later leads to a levelling of nominal and pronominal endings in many Indo-European languages, although in some of them inflectional differences may persist until the present day. It is argued that the fusional morphosyntax of IndoEuropean faciliates linguistic changes of that kind.

Latin paenitet me, miseret me, pudet me and active clause alignment in Proto-Indo-European

Latin paenitet me, miseret me, pudet me and active clause alignment in Proto-Indo-European

DNA Genealogy and Linguistics. Ancient Europe

This article attempts to merge the data of contemporary linguistics and DNA genealogy in order to describe the migrations and settlement of peoples and languages in Europe after the last Ice Age. In the new paradigm, three important groups of players have been identified: —R1ahaplogroup bearers, conditionally identified as Aryans. They arose around 20,000 years before the present (ybp) in central Asia and the Altai Mountains; after their migration along the southern route, they arrived inEuropebetween 10,000 - 9000 ybp, bringing proto-Indo European (PIE) and Indo European (IE) languages. In 4800 ybp they migrated eastward from Europe to the Russian Plane and then to India. About 3000 - 2500 ybp they migrated with their IE languages from the Russian Plain back to central, western, and southern Europe, laying the genetic groundwork for peoples later called Celts, Germans, Italics, Greeks, Illyrians, and Balto-Slavs. —E, F, G, J, I, K haplogroup bearers. The dates of their arrival in Europe (sometime before 5000 ybp) and their migration routes remain obscure. They apparently spoke non-IE languages. —R1b haplogroup bearers, called the Arbins. They arose about 16,000 ybp in central Asia, and migrated toEuropealong a northern route. They arrived inEuropebetween 4800 and 4500 ybp bringing with them several non-IE languages. It seems that the arrival of the Aryans (R1a) inEuropewas peaceful. There are no clear indications that their arrival triggered any sort of violence. However, the migration of the Arbins (R1b) was marked by an almost complete elimination of the E1b, F, G2a, J, I1, I2, and K haplogroups fromEurope. Our analysis of current linguistic theories in the light of DNA genealogy data demonstrates that: —the Anatolian theory is generally compatible with DNA genealogy data; —the Vasconic and Afro-asiatic substratum theory is partially in agreement with DNA genealogy data; —the Kurgan theory and the Palaeolithic Continuity Theory (PCT) appear incompatible with the history of Europe based on haplogroup data. —the “Out of Africa” theory has questionable validity.

Bioarchaeological Analysis Mutual Relations of Populations Armenian Highlands and Eurasia Using Craniological and Dental Nonmetric Traits

Undertaken here is a multidimensional craniometric analysis of more than 254 ethnic groups of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages from the territory of Eurasia. On the basis of the received information, cluster analysis was done and has shown the genetic condensations of ethnoses and vectors of relatives or, conversely, distinctions between them. Craniometric and odontologic investigation of the Bronze Age is interesting and in connection with discussion about the origin of Indo-Europeans and about the place of their ancestral home. Different aspects of the problem of the ancestral home of Indo-Europeans are far from completely resolved and generate lively debate in the pages of scientific publications. New anthropological data allowed identification of alien Mediterranean characteristics influencing various ethnic Eurasian groups and revealed evidence of a migratory stream from the Armenian highlands and the Caucasus. This research provided new evidence of patterns of ethnic contact and intermixture in Western Eurasia.

Areal Typology of Proto‐Indo‐European: The Case for Caucasian Connections

AbstractThis paper re‐examines the evidence for early contacts between Proto‐Indo‐European (PIE) and the languages of the Caucasus. Although we were not able to find certain proofs of lexical borrowing between PIE and North Caucasian, there are a few undeniable areal‐typological parallels in phonology and grammar. Some features generally attributed to PIE are not found in the majority of languages of North and Northeastern Eurasia, while they are common, or universally present, in the languages of the Caucasus (especially North Caucasus). Those features include the high consonant‐to‐vowel ratio, tonal accent, number suppletion in personal pronouns, the presence of gender and the morphological optative and, possibly, the presence of glottalized consonants and ergativity.

Introduction au système de nomination des serpents en grec ancien : l'ophionymedipsaset ses synonymes

ABSTRACT Introduction to the ancient Greek system of snake naming: the ophionym dipsas and its synonyms Most — if not all — names of both indigenous and exotic snakes as evidenced in ancient Greek were neither of Indo-european origin nor borrowed from foreign languages. They were coined by the Greeks on the basis of criteria of three types. The first and predominant type referred to zoological data (from morphology to behaviour, bio-ecology or zoogeography), the second one to venomous symptoms, the third one to anthropological features. In this insight, all three are defined, the first two are surveyed with the case study of the ophionym dipsas and its synonyms. For its linguistic, herpetological and iological contents, this case provides a representative example for introducing to the ancient Greek system of snake naming.