If you're reading this, you are either a) struggling or b) part of the anglophonie. English is a bit peculiar because all the short words are "germanic" related to Nederlands and Frisian but the $10 words - from cooking, law, politics, science and tech - come from the South mainly Latin, via [Norman] French, but with a smattering of Greek. We'll ignore the obvious loan words like adobe, bungalow, chutney, divan, embargo, fjord, gulag, hummus, incognito, junta, klutz, mantra, nark, opera, poteen, Qi, robot, sauna, Tory, ukulele, veld, wanderlust, yacht, zero. These blow-ins can be a poser, but not a problem for linguists digging into the origin of languages. The origin of Language itself is another, deeper, more speculative, problem.
Since my pal Dan Bradley [FRS] pioneered the sequencing of ancient DNA thirty years ago in Trinity College Dublin it has become a booming speciality. Not just permafrozen mammoths and neanderthals but regular "recent" humans who may have spoken PIE or one of its many descendants. Now, the grave goods (bronze, beakers, beads) can be cross-referenced to the Y-chromosome of the honoured dead and inferences can be made about whether the interee was local or colonizing blow-in from the steppe. This doesn't always help with the language because there are cases where invading hegemons adopted the language of the natives, like the Vikings and Normans in Ireland; and also where their language because the aspirational prestige language of power, as with Normans in England.
I didn't twig that Baltic and Slavic were two different branches of the PIE bush. That would have added some friction to the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth aka Królestwo Polskie i Wielkie Księstwo Litewskie (1569 - 1795) before it was finally dismembered and gobbled up among Russia, Austria and Prussia.
Who doesn't love the fact that Elfdalian / Övdalian is a separate descendant of proto-germanic spoken by about 3,000 folk in one corner of Sweden. They have mobilised 7 extra letters to help with the pronunciation: Ąą, Ęę, Įį, Ųų, Y̨y̨, Ą̊ą̊ and Ðð. And, just to be contrary, the language was written in runes until just over 100 years ago. Needless to say, like all the Gaeilgeoirí in Ireland, all speakers are fluent in Swedish, because they need driving licenses.
Spinney throws judicious hat at a Ukrainian [as opposed to Anatolian, south across the Black Sea] origin of Proto. Most likely a crew by the name of Yamnaya, who buried their dead in pits under kurgans [barrow, tumulus] and sprinkled them with red ochre before covering them over forever.
Did someone mention Ukraine? The War there has put a bit of a damper on excavations of known or new Yamnaya sites. Archaeologists are happy out digging with a trowel and a paint-brush but are understandably ill-equipped to deal with land-mines and unexploded munitions. But there have been some wins among the tsunami of losses. In 1930, the Soviets decided to build Azovpol a steel plant in Mariupol. They weren't totally oblivious to culture and when the zeks uncovered an ancient burial site, Mykola Makarenko was allowed in for an emergency dig. It was rushed but careful and the artifacts and drawings were lodged in the Mariupol Municipal Museum. In Feb 2022 the Azovpol steelworks turned into a meat-grinder during the Russian invasion. The stellworks were destroyed along with the museum and everything in it. Very slow hand-clap.
otoh, in 1956, during the next five year plan, the R. Dnieper was dammed for hydropower and irrigation at Kakhovka. The resulting reservoir covered the oldest known Yamnaya site at Mykhailivka, putting it off-limits to further excavation. The dam was blown up by the Russians or sabotaged by the Ukrainians in June 2023 releasing 18 cu.km of water. 60 people and uncountable livestock were killed and 40 communities flooded . . . but the meadows at Mykhailivka became accessible for the first time in 60 years.
But enough of these anecdotes, get the full overview by reading the book! I've returned 'my' copy to the library.
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