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Re: Indo-European Studies
@#$%!?! (smryan@netcom.com)
Thu, 13 Jul 1995 11:15:12 GMT
: like a case of extreme splitting. At one time, the speakers of proto-IE
: undoubtedly consisted of a cohesive cultural unit, which I picture as a
: large tribe or primitive "nation". They certainly had distinctive cultural
Actually, there are doubts. Benviste argued PIE might have been a
creole, a trading language developed among many distinct cultures
of central europe through the steppes.
Also, many modern people share a religion, say christianity, but
are otherwise distinct culturally (chinese, english, american,
indian, vietnamese, etc). This can lead to the borrowing of
religious terms, such as trinity or sacred from latin to english.
Similarily if technology is borrowed, the technical terms can
be borrowed as well.
PIE is a hypothetical, reconstructed language. It is not possible
to know how accurate the reconstructed words or their meanings are.
(No records exist to check it against.) While language reflects
other aspects of a culture, it is hardly definitive.
--
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