New Evidence for How Languages Spread 10,000 Years Ago
Studies like this could also open new paths to insights into human societies, for example on the topic of migration. "If languages adapt to their environment in a slow process lasting thousands of years, then they carry some clues about the environment of their predecessor languages," says the Kiel linguist.
PhysOrg.com • Linguistics Study Claims That Languages Are Louder in the Tropics
The isolated prehistoric societies of China and Europe became dimly aware of the possibility of one another’s existence only after the horse was domesticated and the covered wagon invented. Together, these two innovations in transportation made life predictable and productive for the people of the Eurasian steppes. The opening of the steppe—its tra
... See moreDavid W. Anthony • The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
A new idea can be spread quickly if someone can explain it and communicate it to others before they have to discover it themselves. But the chief advantage of language is not communication but autogeneration. Language is a trick that allows the mind to question itself; a magic mirror that reveals to the mind what the mind thinks; a handle that turn... See more
Kevin Kelly • What Technology Wants
This book argues that it is now possible to solve the central puzzle surrounding Proto-Indo-European, namely, who spoke it, where was it spoken, and when.
David W. Anthony • The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
There is another great debate about farming: did it spread through imitation, or did it spread because migrant populations of farmers displaced the hunter-gatherers? The answer in Europe seems to be the latter. The provisional evidence suggests that the early agriculturalists from Anatolia arrived as migrants in Western Europe around 6000 BCE and l
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