What inspired you to write a book on the origins of the Proto-Indo-European language?
In the summer of 2022, a linguist outlined the origin story of the Indo-European languages and how research in this area is progressing rapidly. I was curious because, in the last 10 years, we have been able to extract and read DNA from ancient and modern human remains. I realized that the story of the Indo-European languages – their origins and spread – needed to be retold for a new age.
As I started talking to linguists, archaeologists, and geneticists, I realized they were all providing different pieces of the same puzzle. Most people agree that these languages are descended from a common ancestor, Proto-Indo-European. But since this was before writing, people naturally asked: Who spoke this first language? Where did they live? How did they live?
Until 10 or 20 years ago, archeology was our primary source of evidence. Then came ancient DNA technology. This helped trace prehistoric populations through their migration in space and time. Migration is one of the main drivers of language change. Although this is not always held, as a general rule the branches of language families can be mapped quite concretely onto these migration paths.
What does its story tell about relations between East and West?
in one session odyssey Stephen Fry and other speakers at the Jaipur Literature Festival were discussing the parallels between Greek epics and the oral storytelling traditions found in Indian villages. This is not a coincidence. Their languages are interconnected, and stories, myths, poetic traditions, and cultural practices travel along with those languages. Bardic traditions are by no means unique to the Indo-European family, but recurring themes and motifs appear throughout these mythological and literary traditions.
The evidence points to much deeper connections between East and West that are much older than we commonly imagine. Western history often begins with the Greeks and Romans; Eastern history with early Indic, Hindu or Persian writings. But beneath those familiar histories lie much deeper layers of shared ancestry; About as far back as our current equipment allows us to see.
What does the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language tell us about the people who spoke it?
It is a language that has been dead for about 4,000 years. Since it was never written down, linguists reconstructed it by comparing related words and expressions preserved in languages such as Sanskrit and Greek.
That reconstructed dictionary provides an understanding of the society that spoke it. For example, there are lots of words for a woman’s in-laws, but very few for a man’s. Linguists conclude that women generally move into the man’s home after forming a family. I hesitate to call it marriage because it may not have been an institution that they recognised.
Conservatively, linguists believe that these people were nomadic pastoralists rather than settled farmers. They also knew the wagon, which means they would have lived after its invention around 3500 BC and were therefore also among the earliest practitioners of dairy farming.
In response to patriarchy going way back, what I find reassuring is that the evidence shows that humans have always been capable of both violence and cooperation. There are historians, such as Peter Turchin, who argue that society goes through cycles of integration and disintegration, but in the long run, humanity learns.
We were talking in France, where I live, and he said, I think we’re going to have a crisis. But will it be as bad as the French Revolution? I don’t think so, because we have learned how to stop killing each other when crises arise. All of this is a certain amount of speculation that one can only hope is true.
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How reliable are these types of reconstructions?
The reconstructed dictionary provides clues, to be taken with a pinch of salt, as to how these people lived and thought. Archaeologists then ask if we are talking about 3500 BC onwards, who was living in this part of the world and how? Can they keep up with people who speak and think a certain way?
Genetics comes in because it tells us how those people came to be. We believe that people carry their language with them. Then, we see them spreading to all places where Indo-European languages were eventually spoken, even in the ancient world. Now they are on every continent, but even in the ancient world, they were spoken throughout Eurasia.
When did scholars first realize that European and Indian languages were related?
This occurred thousands of years after the original migration. The recognition of these relationships was a slow process that unfolded over a few hundred years.
First, scholars had to realize that the Romance languages were related. He then recognized the Germanic family, and gradually worked backwards, expanding the boundaries of the linguistic family until he understood that all these languages had a deep common ancestor.
It was also related to growing empires. Increasing travel also exposed scholars to unfamiliar languages. People traveling in the Empire, for whatever reason, exposed them to new languages and those who took the trouble to learn the languages of both directions began to notice these similarities.
By estimating how old languages have been reconstructed, can we also predict how languages will evolve in the future?
I inspired many linguists to predict but no sensible linguist could do so. At the moment, it is very difficult to predict language change. AI can ultimately help because it is good at detecting patterns in huge data sets. If we properly exploit its potential in this area, we can begin to shape the evolution of language. But at present we cannot do this.
English is unlikely to split into sister languages in the same way as Latin or Sanskrit did. An important reason is literacy. In the Roman Empire or ancient India, most dialects separated naturally because there was no written version of the language that tied its speakers together.
Today, widespread literacy has slowed the development of language. One linguist I quote in the final chapter of my book suggests that at least the spoken form of English may be breaking down, although the written form, which we all share in order to be able to understand each other, still holds it together.
Technology, and especially AI, is said to be a homogenizing language.
If technology could translate what someone said instantly, people might feel less motivated to learn a second language. At the same time, if, say, a small or even marginalized version of a language becomes associated with some cultural phenomenon, like some kind of cool new music, it can spread very quickly. So, there are different impacts happening here.
Technologies are also helping us preserve endangered languages by recording and documenting them. I write about the campaign to save endangered languages, and how it is not enough to just put money or resources into teaching languages in school. You have to understand why those languages are dying.
When it comes to Proto-Indo European, at the end of the day trade led to its spread and diversification. There is no such thing as a successful language in itself. All languages do basically the same thing for us, but there are also successful speakers. And if speakers are successful in the sense that they adapt well to their environment, their numbers increase. In a way, you could consider Indo European to be the most successful language family the world has ever seen, because we are more populous than ever before, and it is spoken by almost half of humanity.
Is this why Indo-European languages spread so widely?
Trade and mobility were certainly important engines. If a population is well adapted to its environment, it grows, spreads and migrates. His language travels with him and then gradually diversifies into new forms.
From one point of view, Indo-European is the most successful language family. But if you look more closely, many Indo-European languages have disappeared and many others are endangered. Languages follow the fortunes of their speakers. When communities shift to other languages, their own language eventually dies out.
So saving a language means understanding the social and economic pressures faced by its speakers. People preserve languages when they are motivated to do so – when children continue to learn them and when the language remains a living medium for culture.
Why were early Proto-Indo-European speakers so successful?
Proto-Indo-European languages were first spoken by nomadic herders who exploited the very hostile region of the Eurasian steppe and, thus, were very well adapted to their environment. Their herds converted grass into energy, meat and milk, and clothing, allowing their population to grow. This is what I mean by successful.
As individuals, they literally evolved. He was extremely tall. Archeology tells us, in many cases, they lived exceptionally well to the ages of 60, 70 and 80 because we dug graves 5,000 years ago. But you could also argue that they were victims of their own success because their population was so large at one time. They had to move forward and claim new areas. And it involves some violence, but it also shows how people, ideas and languages moved together across continents over thousands of years.
Kanika Sharma is an independent journalist.
