Indo-European origins (Cunliffe 2008)

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" The study of the origin and spread of Indo-European has largely been

the preserve of linguists, but in recent years the discussion has

been greatly enlivened and given a new direction by archaeologist who

have attempted to bring linguistic theories into contact with the

realities of the material evidence. While it is only fair to say

that large areas remain unresolved, there is a growing consensus, at

least among a significant group of archaeologists, that the most

appropriate context for the introduction of Indo-European into Europe

is the spread of the Neolithic way of life. In other words, the

language originated among the early food producers of south-west Asia

and thereafter spread through Europe, one branch following the rout

through the Balkans to the Great Hungarian Plain and westwards

through the deciduous forest zone of Middle Europe, the other

spreading westwards through the Mediterranean to the Atlantic shores

of Iberia. In both of these zones Indo-European was spread quickly

forwards in the fifth millennium as the language of the colonizing

farmers. Around the frontiers of this early advance lay the regions

where Mesolithic populations were numerous and where elements of

the `Neolithic package' were gradually being adopted by the

indigenous peoples. In these peripheral zones, it is argued, Indo-

European became the accepted language through a process of contact-

induced language shift, eventually giving rise, by creolization, to

the distinctive forms of Indo-European that we call Slavic, Baltic,

Germanic, and Celtic. This process should broadly be dated to the

period 4000-2500 BC. The theory has considerable attraction, not the

least of them being that it fits wee with the archaeological evidence

(Cunliffe 2008, p. 138). "

 

Cunliffe, B. (2007). Europe between the oceans: 9000 bc- ad 1000.

New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11923-7

 

M. Kelkar