Introduction to Proto-Indo-European Linguistics
November 1st 2023
Thank you to wikipedia, chatgpt, if you find errors in this, blame them.
If anyone is interested in verifying what I say, or interested in the etymology of words in general, try wiktionary. It’s what I use, and blame them if I say something wrong.
What is Proto-Indo-European?
- (almost) all languages of europe are related and northern india languages
- Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European language family.
- spoken before the invention of writing but reconstructed using the comparative method.
History of PIE
Discovery of similarities with European languages.
- Europeans had been studying latin and ancient greek
- really complicated grammar (for English speakers at least)
- after they discovered sanskrit, they found certain similarities that they were able to connect them
- they then theorized that there was originally one language, and this language then developed into latin, greek and sanskrit
- also later tied Germanic, Slavic into the mix
- Later discovered tocharian and hittite
Example grammatical features
| Aspect | Ancient Greek | German |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | ||
| Nominative | Subject of the verb. | Subject of the verb. |
| Genitive | Possession or origin. | Possession. |
| Dative | Indirect object or means. | Indirect object. |
| Accusative | Direct object or goal. | Direct object. |
| Vocative | Direct address. | - |
| Numbers | ||
| Singular | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dual | ✓ (for two items) | - |
| Plural | ✓ | ✓ |
| Genders | ||
| Masculine | ✓ | ✓ |
| Feminine | ✓ | ✓ |
| Neuter | ✓ | ✓ |
Ok, but what is a proto language
-
A proto-language is a hypothetical or reconstructed ancestor language from which a group of related languages have descended. It is not directly attested in any historical records but is inferred through the comparative method.
- Reconstruction: Proto-languages are reconstructed using linguistic evidence from descendant languages.
- Notation: Often, an asterisk (*) is used before a word to indicate that it’s a reconstructed form and not directly attested.
- Another proto language would be proto germanic, which would be a daughter of PIE
Grimm’s law
- How they got Germanic involved
In techenical terms, it is a chain shift voiced plosives -> voiced plain stops -> voiceless stops -> voicless fricative
- Voiceless Stops to Voiceless Fricatives:
-
Example 1: PIE *p → Proto-Germanic *f
Compare latin root pes vs English foot
- Example 2: PIE *t → Proto-Germanic *θ (as in “th”) Compare latin root tres vs english three
- Example 3: PIE *k → Proto-Germanic *h Latin: centum vs english hundred
-
- Voiced Stops to Voiceless Stops:
- Example 2: PIE *d → Proto-Germanic *t latin: dens vs English tooth
- Example 3: PIE *g → Proto-Germanic *k latin: genus vs English kin
- Aspirated Stops to Voiced Stops:
- Example 1: PIE *bʰ → Proto-Germanic *b latin: frater English brother
come up with more examples.
Basic Features of PIE
Phonology
- Rich consonantal system.
- Lots of throating sounds
- velars can be palatal, plain, or labialized
- additionally, there are three voicings of plain, voiced, or voiced aspirated
- giving 9 total velars
- Three laryngeal sounds, although their exact articulation is uncertain.
- had 2 vowels lol
- pitch accent system
Morphology
- Noun inflections for cases, numbers, and genders.
- Verb conjugations based on tense, mood, voice, and person.