Pre-Indo-European languages

Not to be confused with Proto-Indo-European language.

Pre-Indo-European languages are any of several old languages, not necessarily related to one another, that existed in prehistoric Europe and South Asia before the arrival of speakers of Indo-European languages. The oldest Indo-European language texts date from 19th century BCE in Kültepe in modern-day Turkey, and while estimates vary widely, spoken Indo-European languages are believed to have developed at the latest by the third millennium BCE (see Proto-Indo-European Urheimat hypotheses). Thus the Pre-Indo-European languages must have developed earlier than, or in some cases alongside, the Indo-European languages.

A handful of these languages still survive. Some of the pre-Indo-European languages are attested only as linguistic substrates in Indo-European languages; however, some others (like Etruscan, Minoan, Iberian etc.) are also attested from inscriptions.

Terminology

Before World War II all the unclassified languages of Europe and Near East were commonly referred to as Asianic languages; this term encompassed several languages that were later found to be Indo-European, e.g. Lydian, while others (Hurro-Urartian, Hattic etc.) were classified as distinct language families. The term pre-Indo-European is not commonly accepted, as some linguists maintain the idea of the relatively late arrival of their speakers to Europe; they prefer to speak about non-Indo-European languages. A new term, Paleoeuropean, was coined recently. The latter term is not applicable to the languages that predated and/or coexisted with Indo-European outside Europe, e.g. Iran or India.

Surviving languages

Surviving pre-Indo-European languages include:

Languages that contributed a substrate to Indo-European languages

Examples of suggested or known substrate influences on specific Indo-European languages:

Attested languages

Several of these languages are attested in inscriptions. These include Basque, Etruscan, Minoan, Aquitanian, Iberian, and Urartian.

Later Indo-European expansion

Languages replaced or engulfed by Indo-European in ancient times must be distinguished from languages replaced or engulfed by Indo-European languages in more recent times. In particular, the vast majority of the major languages spread by colonialism have been Indo-European, and this has in the last few centuries led to superficially similar linguistic islands being formed by e.g. indigenous languages of the Americas (now surrounded by English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French), and of several Uralic languages (now surrounded by Russian).

See also

Literature

Archaeology and culture

Linguistic reconstructions

References

  1. Peter R. Kitson, "Reconstruction, typology and the original home of the Indo-Europeans", in (ed.) Jacek Fisiak, Linguistic Reconstruction and Typology, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 1997, p. 191.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.