The animals of the Proto-Indo-Europeans Profile picture
“Of beasts and men. The animals of the Proto-Indo-Europeans” was a research project in Indo-European linguistics. 🇪🇺
Nov 15, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
CAN WEATHER & CLIMATE LEAD TO SEMANTIC CHANGE?

Last Saturday I gave a talk about the two PIE words for 'sky': *di̯éu̯- 'bright sky' and *nébʰos 'cloud; cloudy sky'.
Both have become the generic word for 'sky' in certain IE branches. But in which? The answer is quite funny.

👇 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clouds_and_blue_sky_in_Russia._IMG_110.jpg *di̯éu̯- 'bright sky' has become the standard word for 'sky' in Vedic (dyā́uṣ), and is preserved in this meaning in phrases in Avestan (diiaoš 'from the sky') and Latin (sub iove 'in the open air').

👇 Image
Sep 27, 2023 20 tweets 5 min read
The Laryngeal Theory
Let me tell you more about the PIE laryngeals, specifically the 2nd laryngeal, *h₂. This story is testament to the precision with which historical linguistics makes predictions about unattested proto-languages and to the success of the comparative method.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittites#/media/File:Treaty_of_Kadesh.jpg In the late 19th century, Indo-Europeanists believed in two types of roots: roots with a normal ablaut behavior (e.g., *bʰer- ‘bring, carry’) and long-vowel roots (e.g., *stā-‘(make) stand’).

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Sep 8, 2023 11 tweets 3 min read
What do all the following words have in common?

birth, burden, to bear, to be born, barrow, difference, euphoria, fortune, furtive, Lucifer, metaphor, offer, phosphorus, preference, referee, suffering, transfer.

Can you guess?

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1/11 Fortuna, inv. 2244 - Braccio Nuovo, Museo Chiaramonti - Vatican Museums. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fortuna,_inv._2244_-_Braccio_Nuovo,_Museo_Chiaramonti_-_Vatican_Museums_-_DSC00920.jpg You're right – they are all derived from the same PIE root, *bʰer-, which is one of the best and most widely attested roots in the IE languages. Its meaning is usually cited as 'to carry, bring'.

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Aug 4, 2021 14 tweets 12 min read
#ADDER in #IndoEuropean: #Latin natrix, gen. sg. natrĭcis f. ‘water snake’, #OldIrish nathair, gen. sg. nathrach, #Welsh neidr, pl. nadredd, #OldCornish nader ‘snake’, #OldBreton natrolion pl. ‘basilisks’, #MiddleBreton nazr, azr, #ModernBreton naer ‘snake’, …
1/14 https://commons.wikimedia.o...#ProtoGermanic *nadraz m. (#Gothic nadrs, #OldNorse naðr, #Icelandic naður), *nēdrōn- f. (#OldEnglish nǣdre, #OldHighGerman nātara, #WestFrisian njirre), *nadrōn- f. (#MiddleEnglish nadder, adder, #OldNorse naðra, #MiddleDutch nadre, adre, #Dutch adder, #German Natter, Otter)
2 https://commons.wikimedia.o...
Apr 15, 2021 21 tweets 6 min read
#BIRD in #IndoEuropean: #Vedic váy- m. (nom. véṣ, víṣ, acc. vím, gen. véṣ, nom. pl. váyas), #Avestan nom. sg. vīš, pl. vaiiō, #Latin avis, gen. avis f., #Umbrian acc. pl. avif, #Armenian haw, #Greek αἰετός, ἀετός /aietós, aetós/ m. ‘eagle’, #Albanian vito ‘dove’.
1/21 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flying_mood_is_on.jpg All the words mentioned in 1/ are either continuants or derivatives of the general #ProtoIndoEuropean term for ‘bird’, the precise reconstruction of which is highly controversial and hotly debated among scholars of Indo-European linguistics.
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Jan 6, 2021 16 tweets 7 min read
OX in #IndoEuropean: #Vedic ukṣā́, #Avestan uxšā, #ProtoGermanic *uhsô (#Gothic auhsa, #Old Norse oxi, #OldEnglish oxa, #OldHighGerman ohso, #German Ochse, #Durch os), #Welsh ych, #OldIrish oss, #Tocharian B okso, A pl. opsi.
1/16 This word, my friends, is so fascinating that one could write a whole PhD thesis about it (trust me, I know). The immediate reconstruction for all items in 1/ is a masculine n-stem with a nom. sg. *hₓuksō(n). For such a stem we would expect a nom. pl. *hₓuksō̆nes.
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Jul 20, 2020 11 tweets 3 min read
There is no reconstructible etymon for the #hedgehog in #ProtoIndoEuropean: the individual formations are all limited to one or two branches. However, two prominent naming patterns are observable. One is rather obvious, the other one probably a little bit surprising. Image First, the obvious one: the spines. As arguably the prickliest #mammal of northern #Eurasia, the name 'the bristling one' *ǵʰḗr (a root noun from the root *ǵʰers 'bristle' of Sanskrit hṛṣyati 'shudders, becomes stiff', Latin horrēre 'stand erect, tremble') makes sense.