Proto-Indo-European as Adamic language (or first human tongue)

We already talked about the theories that are out there in the Internet about the Indo-European language related to other hypothetical proto-languages. Well, I found a new one, related to creationism – not only to that of the American Mormons, but also to a Catholic Saint’s revelations, those of Anne Catherine Emmerich. The following text is taken from the Wikipedia Adamic language article. I thought it could be interesting to share it here, and thus let people compare it with Eurasian, out-of-India model, Paleolithic continuity theory, Nostratic, and the like.

The Adamic language is a term for the hypothetical

… Read the rest

About the 'hypothetical' Proto-Indo-European language

Indo-European is most commonly referred to by many – usually non-Indo-European – linguists as the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. Also, people usually refer to other languages or language families without written remains as hypothesis. We could talk, then, about the hypothetical Indo-Uralic, Eurasian, Ural-Altaic, Proto-Pontic or Nostratic languages, for example.

On the other hand, there are some languages, like Minoan – already mentioned in the previous post -, which aren’t officially hypothetical. I guess that’s because we have some written remains (still undeciphered) of a probable language system, supposedly related to Eteocretan, a younger language … Read the rest “About the 'hypothetical' Proto-Indo-European language”

Basque, 'the oldest language'

There are, from time to time, some articles or speeches which address a common misconception hardly related to linguistics, namely that of Basque being ‘the oldest language’.

Firstly, let me say that I (as many others) like the Basque language specially because of its peculiarity: it is one of those strange language isolates that can be found in some corners of the world, having resisted the linguistic battle of those unending cultural wars that contact between different human societies usually generate. In this very case, the language resisted the spread of Indo-European dialects in Western Europe, just as Uralic resisted … Read the rest “Basque, 'the oldest language'”

Brugmann's 'wrong approach' to Proto-Indo-European

I read in some [tag]Slavic[/tag]-oriented personal website, with a tiny section dedicated to Indo-European studies, that [tag]Brugmann[/tag]’s old approach was wrong due to his wrong assumptions about PIE – confusingly enough, he mixes Brugmann’s (late) PIE with an early PIE, in turn related to a hypothetical [tag]Indo-Uralic[/tag] -, and subsequently also every single work published since his Grundriss which didn’t correct those mistakes. In this very case – which is not the only one that can be found out on the Web – the author emphasized the importance of the wrong accusative reconstruction of the German linguist; … Read the rest “Brugmann's 'wrong approach' to Proto-Indo-European”

Happy new Indo-European Year!

We are entering a new year, hopefully The first Indo-European Year.

I have been thinking about where we started, and what I thought exactly a year ago that it was going to happen with our Indo-European revival projects. Even though I usually complain a lot about our lack of resources, I shall say that if the coming years are so good as the last, then the language revival is certainly going to succeed.

I am quite happy now looking at the past, and I am usually very pessimistic. I won’t make an extensive report – we will publish … Read the rest “Happy new Indo-European Year!”