Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Evolution of Modern Languages from Proto-Indo-European

This post would have a really cool language chart embedded in it, but Blogger is uncooperative so here is a link instead.

There is quite a bit of speculation as to the nature of the spread of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language, which is complicated by the complete lack of written examples. Linguists have placed its starting point somewhere between 5,000 BC and 10,000 BC. This means that PIE may have formed before the rise of agriculture, when human populations were more fluid and less established, facilitating the spread of the language.

One potential issue with PIE is that, due to the assumption of vast linguistic drift, it requires established cultures (Assyrians, etc.) to have found reason to move to other regions en masse. On the whole, the spread of PIE-derived languages follows an east-to-west pattern, having reached the British Isles relatively recently.

Due to the ongoing historical investigation, I was unable to find consistent information on the cultural and societal reasons behind the spread of PIE, as I had initially hoped. I will probably create a follow-up post with more information on the topic, if I find any.

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