Recently, I have thinking about vowel alternation (umlaut/apophony) for my conlang with system similar to Proto-Indo-European. For example, the accusative form of "father" in PIE is *ph2-tΓ©r-mΜ₯, while in genitive, it becomes *ph2-tr-Γ©s.
This system can't occur out of the blue, since it must be evolved. So, "to build" in my proto-lang is thurike [ΛtΚ°urike], if you want to say "isn't/aren't build", it will be t'ei-thureke [tΛeiΛtΚ°ureke] by lowering or rising the vowel quality in the unstressed syllable (if the vowel is /a/, I don't know, maybe reduced to schwa or something else).
Unlike PIE, where short e becomes short o, long e (Δ), long o (Ε), or no vowel, in my system, they are simple as changing the quality. I don't know if your proto-lang has similar system as PIE, but it could be really neat.
Especially with the different vowel grades? And preferably of non-IE origin.
Anatolian is thought to have broken up very early, in the mid-late 4th millennium BC.
That's comparable to or maybe even earlier than when classic Indo-Euroepan branches like Germanic split off from other subfamilies.
So would you say it's fair to say "Hittite" and "Luwic" are separate Indo-European subfamilies just as much as "Albanian" and "Germanic" are?
I have read that a word for βsecondβ is impossible to reconstruct for PIE, even though all other ordinal numbers can be reconstructed. Is there an explanation that has been offered up for this?
Even among closely related languages, they can differ greatly. For example, in Germanic languages there is German zweit- derived from the cardinal number zwei, but Norwegian andere meaning other, and English second is clearly a Latin loan word.
1- Why those PIE people decided to migrate away from wherever they were living?
2- Why they were so successful in conquering the native people of Iranian plateau, India or Europe? Why the native population assimilated to the conquering tribe linguistically?
3- Why specifically PIEs? Why Semetics or sub-saharan Africans or Chinese didn't do this? What kind of edge did PIE have? Like no other ancient people could figure out how to build chariots or ride horses?
It seems that there's a tendency for IE languages to become more analytic. My language Greek, for example, has lost (compared to ancient Greek): 1 case, 2 moods, 1 voice, 1 number, the infinitive, and has much simpler noun declensions; and at the same time has developed many new periphrastic features. Then, of course, we all know English (compared to old English).
So are there any IE languages that are outliers to this trend?
While many cultures broadly share similar types of crops despite being distantly related, some crops or animals have become nearly synonymous with certain broad cultural groups due to that crop or animal's prevalence within the broader societies which cultivated them. It is because these cultures of the past relied so heavily on just one or two staple foods that we now associte certain foods (corn-tortillas) with certain cultural cuisines (mexican food). So, what are the equivalents of these crops or animals in your world? Are they different than the kinds of plants and animals we have already domesticated here? Are they different? How so? And how has this impacted the cultures of your world's societies?
Some say the Buddha was a Scythian/sakya. I think this claim is very possible for many reasons. I found 2 examples of lotus flower symbolism in Scythian art so maybe we can trace lotus symbolism from Hinduism/Buddhism to indo European cultures.
On the oldest rug in the world which was Scythian there where lotus flowers.
> Its decoration is rich and varied: the central field is occupied by 24 cross-shaped figures, each of which consists of 4 stylized lotus buds.
Scythian gold piece that is of a lotus flower.
https://www.antiquities.co.uk/shop/appliques-protomes/scythian-gold-lotus-flower-applique/
I know that Buddhist stupas are also most likely(99%) from indo European barrows. They had a central individual and later on relic in their stupa and decorated in goods in the exact same way the indo Europens did it. So there is a lot of Buddhist things that we can implicate with being indo European and maybe ultimately the Buddha him self was a Scythian or at least of heavy indo European descent.
> The basic symbolism, in which the central relic is identified with the sacred person or concept commemorated and also with the building itself, is retained.
> The hemispherical form of the stupa appears to have derived from pre-Buddhist burial mounds in India.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/stupa
So i am trying to see if this is a valid connection of coincidence. That lotus flower was a indo European symbol and maybe there are lotus flower symbolism in other indo European cultures outside of south Asia. I think there was some Persian lotus flower connected to Christianity.
Give my band a name!
In core Proto-Indo-European, the -hβ suffix changed from an abstract/collective meaning to a marker of the feminine gender. You can see this still in abstract nouns generally having feminine gender, e.g. geographia/historia in Greek.
Likewise in Semitic the affix -at is used both for feminine (e.g. Κamat 'maidservant') and abstract/collective (e.g. ΚilΔhat 'goodness').
So what's the semantic link between 'feminine' and 'abstract'? When Indo-European changed from an animate-inanimate gender system, why did masculine continue the animate forms, while the feminine was based on the abstract derivation?
im very curious to see what they are, and what languages bare these "unique" sounds
The paper is available to read here (academia.edu; please ignore any "fried" appearance regarding its display). It's just my first draft, so I can incorporate feedback for revision before submitting for publication. I'm primarily interested in comments from Hellenic, Indo-European, and Uralic etymologists, linguists, and historians (esp. who have experience with being published). However, if you have any general feedback about the style, voice, citations, etc., I appreciate it!
While looking into Proto-Semitic words, I noticed the similarity of some with other Proto Indo-European words which carry the same meaning. Specifically, I noticed that the words for "bull" and "horn", are *αΉ―awr- and *qarn- in Proto Semitic, *tΓ‘wros- and *ker- in Proto Indo-European. And as a speaker of arabic, i can confirm it is "thawr/αΉ―awr" and "qarn" in my native language, i also know it's "taureau" and "corne" in french. There's also Greek tauros, Latin taurus, Hebrew shor/(Aramaic) tawrΔ among others...
Okay so whenever we think about new civs for the game we at are best fantasizing, and this one is even more unlikely than most, but I thought it was a fun thought experiment: Proto Indo-Europeans
Dropoffs: Plough (a movable food dropoff) pulled by an ox, Storecart (movable gold and wood dropoff) pulled by a horse.
Favor generation: Priests can generate favor by fighting, or by praying at a temple.
Major Gods:
DyαΈus phβtαΈr: (Sky father cognate to Zeus and Tyr) Power: Target an enemy creature, it is attacked by wolves. You can control them.
Priests can spend favor to select an area of map to become visible.
DhΓ©Η΅hΕm MΓ©hatΔr (Earth Mother). Power: Create a forest of trees which will endlessly regenerate as they are cut down.
Priests can spend favor to select a nearby area of map to cover with Lush.
H2Γ©wsΕs (Dawn Goddess): Power: Select an empty piece of land to create a number of creatures, trees and a small goldmine.
Priests can spend favor to select a nearby area to turn into farmland
.
Heroes include the Horse Twins: Horsebound Heroes, limit of two you can build, very powerful.
Myth units inspired from Lithuanian folklore (the Indo-European culture which has changed its mythology the least): Ragana (Witches), Baubaus (Devils), Aitvaras (Spirits)
It's inspired from the word "Nirmala", which has a Sanskrit origin. The "mal" part is connected to the a Proto-Indo-European word that means "black".
What about the other European Y-DNA haplogroups like I2, I1, J2, and E? What were the physical characteristics of these haplogroups? Was the Yamnaya culture dominated by both R1b and R1a and that R1b was spread by western Indo-Europeans into western Europe and R1a was spread by eastern Indo-Europeans into Central and Inner Asia, or what I believe right now to be the most likely hypothesis that Yamnaya was R1b dominant and initial PIE migrations spread R1b into western Europe and Inner Asia (Afanasievo) and Corded Ware received higher EHG admixture and spread R1a to eastern Europe and Central Asia, hence the Proto-Tocharians having initially been R1b-dominant and speaking a Centum language but then got partially satemised by the influx of Andronovo
What's even the difference between R1a and R1b if according to u/behindthebeyond, Y-DNA haplogroups have nothing to do with appearances at all?
So I tried to convince them on r/Hinduism but they just say it's western propaganda wht should I do and there are a lot of them
I know sankrit has like 10 and greek has 2 unofficial ones, but how that many other languages dont have them?
Are there certain tenses shared amongst a number of Indo-European languages for example, but not common in other language families? Or certain ways of conjugating? Etc?
I know it sounds like a gigantic logic leap, but I get the feeling that the conquests of the esteppe peoples over the other european cultures lead to greater cultural differences between genders as they had a habbit of killing the conquered men but marrying the conquered women thus letting the older culture "survive" only among the women.
Is there any evidence or discussion on this topic of how early conquests in neolithic europe led to current gender issues?
EDIT: The title of my question is a joke om the saying "men are from Mars and women are from Venus". It is not a literal question.
The ones I have some to good knowledge of include South Slavic Languages (Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian Bulgarian, Slovene), Russian, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Portuguese, French, German, Romanian, English, Greek and Turkish.
I perceive the same sound (or largely the same) in all South Slavic, Russian, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian, Greek and Turkish.
French - I perceive it as unique but close enough to German.
German - as above.
Portuguese - two or three different sounds, quite unique but in some positions close to the German r (e.g. if beginning letter in the word), in others the sound r as found in Spanish.
English - quite unique but I have possibly heard in in Albanian.
Please correct me if my perceptions/educate me if wrong.
