Paleo-European languages
The Paleo-European languages, or Old European languages, are the mostly unknown languages that were spoken in
Eurasian steppe of pastoralists whose descendant languages dominate the continent today.[1][2] Today, the vast majority of European populations speak Indo-European languages, but until the Bronze Age, it was the opposite, with Paleo-European languages of non-Indo-European affiliation dominating the linguistic landscape of Europe.[3]
The term Old European languages is also often used more narrowly to refer only to the unknown languages of the first
Neolithic Age.[2]
A similar term,
Urheimat. This term thus includes certain Paleo-European languages along with many others spoken in West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia
before the Proto-Indo-Europeans and their descendants arrived.
Traces of lost Paleo-European languages
The prehistoric Paleolithic and Mesolithic modern human hunter-gatherer Paleo-European languages and Neolithic Anatolian and European farmer languages are not attested in writing (but see
Old European script for a set of undeciphered signs that were used in the Vinča culture, which may or may not have been a writing system). The only sources for some of them are place names and especially river names that are found all over central and western Europe, and possibly loanwords
in some Indo-European languages now spoken there.
Attested Paleo-European languages and reconstructed substrates
Paleohispanic languages
- Basque (Euskara) – the only surviving language[2]
- Aquitanian – A close relative to, or a direct ancestor of, Modern Basque.[2]
- Proto-Basque
- Iberian – Perhaps a relative to Aquitanian and Basque: maybe even ancestral to both, but not confirmed.[2]
- Tartessian – Unclassified: possibly related to Iberian, if not related to Indo-European.[2]
Other Paleohispanic languages can only be identified indirectly through
hieroglyphics
is found today; the little material that exists is mostly indecipherable.
Paleo-European languages of Italy
- Tyrsenian languages
- Camunic[2]
- Paleo-Corsican
- Iberian peninsula
- Ligurian[2]
- North Picene language
- Sicanian language
Paleo-European languages of the Aegean area
- Pre-Greek substrate[2]
- Minoan[2]
- Eteocretan may be a descendant of Minoan, but this is uncertain
- Cypro-Minoan
- Eteocypriot may be a descendant of Cypro-Minoan
- Language of the Phaistos Disc, possibly one of the above
North Europe
- Germanic substrate hypothesis
- Britain and Ireland
- Pre-Finno-Ugric substrate
- Pre-Sami substrate(s) – one or more substrate languages underlying the Sami languages, perhaps based on geographical location
- Palaeo-Laplandic
- Pre-Finnic substrate – underlies the development of Proto-Finnic; possibly related to the substrate in Sami
Other
- Vasconic substratum hypothesis
- Albanian substratum hypothesis– possibly related to the substrate in Greek
Sometimes
Caucasian languages are also included in Paleo-European, but the Caucasus region is often considered to be a natural barrier or border region between Asia and Europe.[4]
Neolithic
There is no direct evidence of the languages spoken in the Neolithic.
linguistic links to one another, much like western North America before European colonisation.[5]
Discussion of hypothetical languages spoken in the European Neolithic is divided into two topics: Indo-European languages and "Pre-Indo-European" languages.
Early Indo-European languages are usually assumed to have reached Europe in the
Beaker cultures (see also Kurgan hypothesis for related discussions). The Anatolian hypothesis postulates arrival of Indo-European languages with the early Neolithic. Conversely, the Kurgan hypothesis maintains that the Indo-European languages arrived in Europe no earlier than the Bronze Age, which is consistent with the findings of genome-wide analysis research published in 2015.[6][7] Old European hydronymy is taken by Hans Krahe
to be the oldest reflection of the early presence of Indo-European in Europe.
Critics[Raetic in the Iron Age. It cannot be ruled out that there were several different language families already in the Neolithic period.
In the north, a similar scenario to Indo-European is thought to have occurred, with
substrate influence, which is thought to represent one or more extinct older languages. The ancestors of Sami are estimated to have adopted a Uralic language less than 2500 years ago.[8] Some traces of indigenous languages of the Baltic area have been suspected in the Finnic languages as well, but they are much more modest. There are early loanwords from unidentified non-Indo-European languages in other Uralic languages of Europe, as well.[9]
See also
References
- ^ "Story of most murderous people of all time revealed in ancient DNA | New Scientist".
- ^ ISBN 9781444337341.
- ^ Haarmann, Harald (2011). Das Rätsel der Donauzivilisation. Die Entdeckung der ältestenHochkultur Europas (in German). Munchen: C.H. Beck. pp. 62–63.
- ^ "Caucasus - region and mountains, Eurasia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
- ^ Ringe 2009.
- ^ Science News. 2015. “Genetic Study Revives Debate on Origin and Expansion of Indo-European Languages in Europe.” March 4, 2015. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150304075334.htm
- PMID 25731166.
- ^ Aikio 2004.
- ^ Häkkinen 2012.
Sources
- ISBN 9781444337341.
- ISBN 978-951-9040-19-6.
- Häkkinen, Jaakko (2012). "Early contacts between Uralic and Yukaghir" (PDF). Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia − Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne (264). Helsinki: Finno-Ugric Society: 91–101. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
- Ringe, Don (January 6, 2009). "The Linguistic Diversity of Aboriginal Europe". Language Log. Mark Liberman. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
Further reading
- Haarmann, Harald (1991). "Pre-Indo-European Writing in Old Europe as a Challenge to the IndoEuropean Intruders". Indogermanische Forschungen. 1-8. Vol. 96. Strasbourg: Walter De Gruyter. pp. 1–8.