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A History of Indo-Europeans, Migrations and Language

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Central Asia
A History of Indo-Europeans, Migrations and Language
by Edward Dawson, 17 October 2015

Those peoples who are now known as Indo-Europeans (IEs) were the most widely FOLLOWING PAGES:
ranging ethnic group in ancient times. Due to their existence on the steppes as cattle The Rise of the Turkic Peoples
and horse raising people, they were quite mobile - a characteristic which they shared RULERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD:
with other steppe nomads such as the Turkic and Hunic peoples. Indo-Europeans
Indo-Iranians
Background Uralics
Tocharians
Indo-European is proposed to be a member of a much older macro family called Arzawans (West Luwians)
Nostratic. Kizzuwatnans (East Luwians)
Persians
This includes the Uralic, Altaic and Kartvelian languages, and with a lower probability India
also languages spoken in India, North Africa, and the Arabian peninsula. Kartvelian- Celts
speaking tribes would have been close neighbours to the original Indo-Europeans in the Germanics
Latins
Caucasian Mountains - the apparent difference between them would be that Kartvelian
Sakas
speakers stayed home in the mountains, while Indo-European speakers expanded.
Cimmerians

This expansion was almost certainly caused by the adoption of horse-drawn wagons by EXTERNAL LINKS:
the Indo-Europeans. This led to led to the use of chariots in war, and finally to riding The United Sites of Indo-Europeans
horses for various purposes. Proto-Bulgarian Runic Inscriptions
Studies in the History and Language of
There are various theories about the precise location of their original homeland. A the Sarmatians
personal leaning is for the most probable theory, that they were originally located Linguistics Research Center, University of
Texas at Austin
somewhere on the northern edge of the Caucasus Mountains. These form a range of
Indo-European Chronology - Countries
peaks that sits between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and which today is largely
and Peoples
within the borders of Georgia and the southern tip of Russia. The IEs then expanded Indo-European Etymological Dictionary (J
out from there, most of them going north into the steppes. Pokorny)

RELATED LINKS:
Maps of Indo-European Progression in
Central Asia
Indo-European Daughter Languages:
Anatolian
Map of proto-Anatolian migration
c.3000-2000 BC

Map 1: The northern edge of the Caucuses Mountains between the Black Sea and the
Caspian Sea is the most probable homeland for the proto-Indo-Europeans, cut off as
they would have been from their fellow Eurasiatic speakers (click on image to see full
sized)

Migrations

A full timeline of events can be seen in the accompanying list (see link in the sidebar,
right). But a brief recap here would be useful. The separation of the proto-
Indo-European (PIE) language from its parent Nostratic tongue took place
approximately at the 6000 BC mark (see the first map, above).

One can speculate that this occurred via isolation in a mountainous region (hence
favouring the Caucuses Mountains as a homeland). This would be prior to the 'Kurgan
Hypothesis' homeland. [1]

[ 1 ] The Kurgan Hypothesis

The beginnings of Indo-European expansion took place around 4000 BC (see Map 2, homeland theory is the dominant
below), and with it the beginning of areal dialects. [2] The Anatolian dialect began to theory to explain the migrations of
move southwards, signifying the migration of one group of Indo-Europeans away from Indo-Europeans and the early cultures
that they formed.
the rest. Most of the others appear to have begun an expansion northwards into the
Pontic-Caspian steppe. [ 2 ] Areal dialects are a common
language that is spread over a division
Was the horse domesticated and the horse-drawn wagon adopted at this time? This is of areas and spaces with regional
the Kurgan Hypothesis homeland period, also known as the 'Pontic Steppe Hypothesis', differences emerging.
with the majority of Indo-Europeans inhabiting the steppes to the north of the Black
Sea and Caspian Sea. The archaeological evidence so far is too inconclusive to provide
a definite source of origin for the Indo-Europeans, and some of the more outlandish
theories place it far away from this region, but the Pontic steppe is the favoured
theory.

1 of 5
 These early Indo-Europeans were identified by scholars with warrior pastoralists who
built kurgan (burial mounds - a Turkic loan word in Russian which is often used to
identify the Indo-Europeans prior to their expansion) in the steppes to the north of the
Black Sea and Caspian Sea in what is now southern Russia and Ukraine.

However, the core of this particular study focuses on the expansion as shown by
language shifts rather than other means.

Map 2: The initial expansion of Indo-Europeans took place around 4000 BC, with one
group heading southwards, while the main body expanded into the Pontic-Caspian
steppe, a vast stretch of plains to the north of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea (click on
image to see full sized)

South IEs

The Anatolian branch of Indo-European language appears to have separated from the
rest around 3500 BC; it retained many archaic features which were lost among the
other branches of Indo-European, indicating a clear separation between the two
branches at this time (south and north).

The ancestor tongue of Hatti (Hittite), Luwian (many sub-branches), Lydian, and Palaic
migrated from the Indo-European homeland and moved south through the mountains.
Eventually it reached the highlands of the Anatolian peninsula. From there the Hatti
speakers (Hittites) manage to form an empire that encompassed most of Anatolia
(although they were much later in establishing themselves than the Luwian-speakers).

Core IEs beginning to divide

Around 3000 BC, the remaining Indo-Europeans (now excluding the Anatolian branch)
probably began the process of separating into definite proto languages which were not
intelligible to each other. A western group would evolve into the Celtic, Italic, Venetic,
Illyrian, Ligurian, Vindelician/Liburnian and Raetic branches.

Map 3: The Indo-Europeans of the Pontic-Caspian steppe began to migrate out of their
core territory around 3000 BC, while those who remained behind - the East IEs -
eventually integrated themselves into the Oxus Civilisation and probably then supplied
the Aryans of India and Iran (click on image to see full sized)

Early in this western group's expansion, one tribe apparently made a U-turn and
headed eastwards (which is easy enough to do when you are a steppe nomad!) to
evolve into the Tocharian branch of Indo-Europeans.

A north-western branch began the German ethnic group. A northern branch founded
what would become Baltic and Slavic peoples. Proto-Greeks formed a south-western
branch, probably along with Thracians, Dacians, and Phrygians, all of which seem to
have been related to the Armenians. An eastern, or 'stay at home' branch apparently
calling themselves Arya or something similar formed the ancestors of Indians, Kurds,
Iranians, Mannaeans, Medians, and related peoples.

Language division theories

There are two theories about the splitting of the proto-Indo-European language (PIE)
into divergent languages. One is the tree theory, which illustrates them separating like
the branches of a tree. The other is the wave theory, which indicates dialects in contact

2 of 5
 influencing their neighbours. Both theories would seem to be correct to some degree.
In truth both would have happened depending on the degree of mutual contact and/or
isolation.

Furthermore, there is evidence that branches which split apart in the manner of the
tree model can adopt a linguistic trend or custom from each other. One of the most
glaring examples of this would be the shift from PIE's ancestral 'kw' sound to 'p' in both
Celtic and Italic tongues across a central area of Europe, something that was not
adopted by geographically-isolated Celts in Spain and Ireland, or those Italics to the
west of the Pennines.

Another is the satem/centum split. For convenience, and no other reason, the tree
model is used here. Whilst it is generally too simplistic for a complete explanation,
using a wave model would make the branches incoherent.

North IEs [ 3 ] This term refers to the

east/west split (respectively) in
The 'leading edge' of the Balto-Slavic group seems to have become proto-Balts, and Indo-European language groups. The
their southern relatives in the north, proto-Slavs. These two moved north from the satem described all of the eastern IE
other Indo-Europeans. These tribes appear to have moved into forested river valleys at language groups, and centum the
western. This is discussed further in
an early stage of IE migration and gave up the semi-nomadic or fully nomadic lifestyle
the 'Easternmost IEs' section, below.
as a result.

North-West IEs

The proto-Germans migrated into southern Scandinavia and the Jutland peninsula.

Some peculiarities that distinguish proto-Germanic from other Indo-European tongues

may have been borrowed from Finnic languages. There also appears to have been
heavy cultural contact with their neighbours to the immediate south, the Celts. They
borrowed at least one deity (Taranis, better known as Thor). They also appear to
borrowed a prominent peculiarity of pronunciation that was associated with the Celtic
influence on their religion. The Celtic 'gw' or 'gu' instead of 'w' was adopted in speech,
so that the word for a magician, 'wod/woth', became 'god/goth', meaning a deity. The
'gw' became 'g' and, in at least one recorded instance, a 'k', as the Baltic Sea was
recorded by the Romans as the Codanus Sinus.

There appears to have been two conflicting groups of deities who were honoured by
early Indo-Europeans; these are best known by their Vedic names of Devas and
Asuras. Some cultures honoured both, but most chose one or the other as dominant
one. The proto-Germans seem to have chosen the Asuras as dominant, under their
dialectal variant 'Os', otherwise known as 'Aesir'.

West IEs

This language group dominated most of Europe in ancient times, and still does in
western Europe. Its member languages are Celtic, Italic, Venetic, Illyrian, Ligurian,
Vindelician/Liburnian, and Raetic branches. West Indo-Europeans are probably best These late Iron Age artefacts come from
known for their geographically wide-ranging group, the Celts, who in turn adopted a Lithuanian cremation burial -
Latin once they had been conquered by the Romans. descendants of North IEs

This group's most influential member language, however, is Latin, an Italic tongue that
was spread across Europe by the Roman empire. Celtic tribes have been associated
with Urnfield culture artefacts that began to appear around 1200 BC in central Europe,
with the later Hallstatt culture which started around 800 BC, and also with the La Tène
culture of around 450 BC.

Whilst these associations are not doubted here, readers should be cautious about
merely accepting these defining labels. Celtic-speaking tribes were not limited to the
regions within these material cultures and instead extended well beyond them. On the
other hand, the Hallstatt material culture was also found in the Illyrian area of eastern
Europe, showing a wide range of settlement.

Movement of this group appears to have been almost exactly west from the ancestral
homelands, with some bending of their path due to geography. A serious question
would be why they came west. Were they pushed by other nomads, and if so, who?
Peoples in the area might have been Iranian nomads or perhaps Thracians, such as the
Cimmerians who originated on the steppes before moving south into Iran and Anatolia.

West-South-West IEs

Albanian appears to be an Indo-European dialect isolate. Its affinities appear to make

no sense whatsoever, so the less said here about it the better. Any help in this area
would be appreciated, so please get in touch. Whoever or whatever they were and are,
they occupy the western coast just north of the Greeks.

South-West IEs

This language group seems to include both Greeks and Armenians; whether they split
off from a more recent common ancestor than PIE, or were in close contact is
debatable.

Also in this area were the Thracians, but their origin is even more debatable because
they appear to have spoken a satem language rather than the centum one of their
neighbours. A tidy assignment of their origin is impossible due to the uncertainty of
their history. Were they a West IE people, perhaps Italics or Illyrians, who were taken
over by an eastern, satem-speaking military elite, with their languages subsequently
fusing? Also tentatively placed in this group are Dacians and Phrygians.

South IEs

These are the Anatolian languages, the first to split off from PIE. The best known is The 'Mask of Agamemnon' was so
Hittite, which also included Luwian, Palaic, Lydian, and Lycian. This is the group that named by Heinrich Schliemann, perhaps
appears to have abandoned the steppes at the earliest date, and yet historical records optimistically, but this is a prime example
of Mycenaean work - descendants of
indicate that they had the same highly mobile horse-borne habits as the other
South-West IEs
Indo-Europeans. They fought from chariots and attacked south from Anatolia into
Mesopotamia and Egypt.

3 of 5
 Easternmost IEs

The Tocharians appear to have a very odd history. Their language shows elements of
both eastern and western influences, which raises the question of whether they began
as a Western IE group (or a conquering core of Western IE warriors) that went
eastwards and either assimilated another tribe or other tribes, or were in heavy
contact with them. A case could even be made for them being an Anatolian language
group or being in heavy contact with the Anatolian group.

An intriguing possibility is that they are a hybrid people made up of elements of

multiple groups. The curious thing about Tocharian is that it is a centum language - just
like IE languages in the west - but it is the easternmost of the IE languages.

This is the centum/satem split.

So this gives us two possibilities: either the satem (eastern) pronunciation was adopted
in the old homeland of Indo-Europeans after the mass departure of peoples to the west
into Europe who became Celts and Germans, and to the far east by the proto-
Tocharians; or the centum/satem split is a west/east split and the west-speaking
Tocharians performed a u-turn.

The former seems to be the prevailing argument currently. However, the latter is
favoured here because Anatolian was the first group to detach itself from the main core
of Indo-Europeans and this seems to be a satem group.

This would mean that PIE was originally satem. What is certain is that Tocharians did
borrow heavily from other languages because we find Sanskrit words they adopted due
to their Buddhist religion. Could Tocharian be heavily hybridised in the manner of
English with its large French vocabulary, and religious-adopted Latin vocabulary?

A website named The United Sites of Indo-Europeans (see links) says:

This group is perhaps the least studied in all [of the] Indo-European macro-family. It
consists of two dead languages, Tocharian A (or Agnean) and Tocharian B (or Kuchanian),
spoken in the first millennium AD in East Turkestan, in several [oases in which]
inscriptions and texts written in [these languages] were found.

The [routes and methods used in] Tocharic migrations from [the] Middle East to East Asia
are still unknown. The languages show many borrowings from early Iranian languages,
archaic Finno-Ugric, and even Tibetan-like forms, but the structure itself shows much
similarity first of all with Germanic and Balto-Slavic languages. Linguists think Tocharians
moved through Central Asia from west to east and, on their way, had many linguistic
contacts reflected in their tongue. Before these migrations, [it] being a dialect in [the]
proto-Indo-European community, Tocharians must have communicated closely with future
Anatolians and Italo-Celts. [4]

East (Homeland) IEs [ 4 ] Of great personal fascination to

the present author is the fact that one
What in the past were called Aryans are now known as Indo-Iranians and Indo-Aryans of the Cimmerian kings was named
- the original term has bad connotations due to its use by the Nazis. Tugdamme, which is a near-perfect
analogue for the name Togodumnus
They appear to have been the group that remained where they were in the old of the Catuvellauni in Britain. Is
Tugdamme a Celtic name that was
homeland, in the steppes to the north of the Caucasus. They also appear to have
used by the Cimmerians? Or perhaps
stayed longer than any ancient group in the 'secondary homeland' to the north of the a Tocharian pronunciation with the
Black Sea, which is just west of their primary homeland in the upper Caucasus. same meaning? Tug/Togos is a deity
name, more familiar as Dagda and
There is some evidence in names to show that people using a language which was meaning shining like the sun (cognate
related to Vedic and Avesta lived to the north of the Black Sea; and various groups of with the English word 'day').
Damme/Dumnus is often defined as
Iranian nomads also occupied that area for a very long time.
meaning 'world', but far more likely it
is a cognate of the Latin Dominus and
The group split into two related linguistic groups, one we call Iranian, and the other means either 'dominant' or
Indian; both appear to have lived to the north of the Black Sea (some of the people in 'dominated', probably the latter in this
this region were known in classical antiquity as Scythians and Sarmatians). In addition case. Celtic name constructions often
to the steppes they expanded into modern Afghanistan, Iran, India, Pakistan, and the use a deity name along with other
words indicating 'beloved by', 'dog of',
hill country of Syria and eastern Turkey. 'servant of', etc. In this case it would
be roughly 'ruled by' the deity Togos.
Along the way they integrated themselves into the Oxus civilisation of around
2200-1700 BC and were probably also responsible for the 'spiral cities' of the Were the Cimmerians a group of
Kazakhstan steppe. It seems more likely that 'integrated' is correct rather than Thracians or Iranians who were ruled
by a Celtic or Tocharian elite?
'founded'. IE nomads did not apparently build cities; they conquered or infiltrated into a
material culture that itself built cities. The Oxus civilisation people (indigenes, meaning
the original natives of that area, equating to aborigines) were probably in conflict (at
war) with the IEs of the Andronovo horizon. In time they probably did become IEs due
to IE settlement amongst them, but this would have been in the manner of Greece
being occupied by the proto-Mycenaeans: the language may have changed but the
gene pool would have remained mostly indigene.

As nomads they were quite mobile, ranging as far as China in the east where they
were known as eastern Saka (Scythians), to Spain in the west where they were known
as Alans (the word is an altered form of Arya).

Some of these Alans accompanied the Vandals into North Africa, settling with them in
Tunisia. Their language fragmented into dialects just like all the others, but in this case
there is evidence of heavy contact with non-IE languages, particularly from other
nomads. There appears to have been heavy contact between Alans and proto-
Bulgarians. For instance, the ruler of the Alans bore the proto-Bulgarian (originally
Mongol language) title of 'khan' (see the link for Proto-Bulgarian Runic Inscriptions in
the sidebar).

As settled farmers, the Indian group moved into modern Pakistan and India; and the
settled Iranians moved into modern Iran, eastern Turkey and nearby areas.

One tribe, or dialect group seem actually to have stayed close to the original
homeland, and are today's Ossetians.

4 of 5
 Professor Gennady Zdanovich has recently (2010) made fresh discoveries on the modern
Kazakhstan steppe of Bronze Age 'spiral' cities which exhibit many signs of having been
built and used by Indo-Europeans, having been built around 2000 BC

Bear in mind the fact that the timelines given above are conjectural in most cases; the
farther back in time one goes, the fewer written records can be used. By necessity the
estimates used above are rough - they may be right or they may be wrong - and in
either case exact dates seem impossible to prove beyond doubt.

What seems certain is that the Indo-Europeans started out as a numerically small
group, possibly or even probably in some sort of isolation, who then entered the
steppes and at some point became nomadic via horse-drawn wheeled vehicles. From
that action alone, the Indo-Europeans can be regarded as possibly the first militarily
aggressive nomadic people on the Eurasian continent, and certainly the first successful
one.

As such they had a terrible advantage over the isolated tribes and organised
civilisations that they encountered: they could appear out of apparently nowhere and
attack, and if they didn't win could simply roll away in their chariots and carts, out of
reach of sedentary peoples to attack again somewhere else or later at the same spot.
Not until other nomads such as Huns and Mongols developed and expanded was this
advantage duplicated. The Indo-Europeans had mixed success in Asia; but in Europe,
with no steppes, they took almost everything they encountered.

Indo-Europeans remained militarily aggressive and eventually controlled most of the

planet, which was only partially rolled back in modern times as other peoples acquired
advanced military and industrial technology. Their contribution to worldwide civilisation
has been considerable.

Online Sources
Proto-Bulgarian Runic Inscriptions:
http://www.kroraina.com/pb_lang/pbl_2_4.html
Studies in the History and Language of the Sarmatians:
http://www.kroraina.com/sarm/jh/jh3_4.html
Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin:
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/general/IE.html
Indo-European Chronology - Countries and Peoples
http://tied.verbix.com/project/chron/chronn.html
Indo-European Etymological Dictionary (J Pokorny):
http://dnghu.org/indoeuropean.html

Text copyright © Edward Dawson. Original maps copyright © P L Kessler. An original

feature for the History Files.

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