THE EXISTENCE OF

PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN

Kosenko Anastasia A-33

 What is PIE?
 Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is estimated to have
existed as a living language from 4,500 B.C.E.
to 2,500 B.C.E, but was extinct ever since.
 People did not even know that this language
ever existed. It’s only during the 19th century
that linguists were able to reconstruct this
language.
 The linguistic reconstruction was possible
following pretty amazing techniques that were
made available by the comparative method.
The reconstruction of PIE started by this guy:

Sir William
Jones
 Kurgan hypothesis
 The Kurgan hypothesis, first put
forward in 1956 by Marija Gimbutas,
proposes that the Yamna culture
associated with the kurgans (burial
mounds) on the Pontic–Caspian
steppe north of the Black Sea were
the original speakers of PIE.
 According to the theory, PIE became
widespread because its speakers from
the Kurgan culture could migrate into
a vast area of Europe and Asia.
Phonology
Consonants

Vowels
 Lexicon and culture
 Much less is known about the parent
language’s vocabulary than about its
phonology and grammar.
 It is relatively easy for an individual word
to disappear or shift meaning in so many
daughter languages that its existence or
meaning in the parent language cannot be
confidently inferred. Hence, from the
linguistic evidence alone, scholars can never
say that Proto-Indo-European lacked a word
for any particular concept.