Podcasts about proto indo europeans

“My mission is to show people how much language they already know without realizing it” A linguist, writer, and podcaster based in Prague, Danny Bate has turned a lifelong passion with language into a career that spans teaching, academia, and online media. After completing his Master's, he worked as a language teacher before diving into a PhD in Linguistics with the University of Edinburgh. Since then, he's become a broadcaster, voice actor, and podcast host. In A Language I Love Is…, Danny dives into a particular language with an expert, sharing their enthusiasm with his audience. Danny Bate on LinkedIn Danny Bate's website Why Q Needs U on Bookshop.org A Language I Love Is…podcast   Topics include: – Proto-Indo-European – history – historical linguistics – networking – Old Irish – public linguistics – podcasting – writing systems – careers outside academia – LLMs   If you'd like to support this show, we've got a Patreon! Listen to Lingthusiam, our first patron!The post Episode #87: Danny Bate first appeared on Linguistics Careercast.

Send us Fan Mail✨ Looking for simple Irish Pagan practices that fit real life, without pressure or performance?  Get the free guide here: https://irishpagan.school/practiceWho is Danú? Explore the enigmatic figure of Danú in Irish mythology with Jon O'Sullivan of the Irish Pagan School.Origins of Danú: Understanding her place in Irish lore through the genitive form in "Tuatha Dé Danann" (People of Danú).Mythological complexity: Clarifying modern misconceptions about Danú as an "Earth Mother" or Irish Gaia figure.Anu and Danú: Distinguishing between these two goddesses and their connections to Irish mythology and landscape.Proto-Indo-European connections: Exploring possible links to figures like Danu in Indo-European traditions and the Danube River.Cautions for reconstruction: Avoiding conflations and respecting Ireland's unique mythological identity.Practical spirituality: Jon shares how he and Lora O'Brien explore mythology through experience and connection to Ireland's landscape.✨ Key takeaway: While Danú is an important figure in Irish tradition, her role and presence require careful study, avoiding modern assumptions or cross-cultural conflations.✨ Irish Pagan Resources Checklist available NOW - https://irishpagan.school/checklist/

In this episode, Brady from Apokalipsus Historia shares a deep dive into the etymology of "God," exploring its possible Odinic roots, linguistic connections, and cultural implications. This conversation sheds light on how language encodes ancestral and mythological stories that shape our worldview today.Greyhorn Pagans:Support us on PatreonWebsiteSupport FireFaeBrady/Apokalupsis Historia:SubstackYouTube ChannelPodcast recorded with Riverside Studios:Join RiversideMusic from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):Best Free Music in TownKey Topics:The etymology of "God" from Proto-Indo-European roots related to pouring, libation, and sacrificeThe connection between Odin's names (like Gotter) and the Christian deityHow place names like Goth and Gotland reflect ancient associations with rivers, gushing waters, and possibly the divineThe linguistic evolution of Odin's name in Germanic and Latin sourcesThe symbolic significance of sacrifices, libations, and water in pagan and Odinic traditionsThe potential pun and link between "Goth" and Odin, emphasizing the idea of "Father" or "Creator"The cultural importance of horses, trees, and blood offerings in Goth and Norse contextsThe influence of linguistic and mythic connections on modern Gothic architecture, literature, and media imageryBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/greyhorn-pagans-podcast--6047518/support.Make sure to subscribe to our Patreon for more!Greyhorn Pagans Patreon

gratitude(n.)mid-15c., "good will," from Medieval Latin gratitudinem (nominative gratitudo) "thankfulness," from Latin gratus "thankful, pleasing" (reconstructed in Watkins to be from a suffixed form of PIE root *gwere- (2) "to favor"). The meaning "thankfulness" is attested from 1560s.also from mid-15c.Entries linking to gratitude*gwere-(2)gwerə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to favor."It might form all or part of: agree; bard (n.); congratulate; congratulation; disgrace; grace; gracious; grateful; gratify; gratis; gratitude; gratuitous; gratuity; gratulation; ingrate; ingratiate.It might also be the source of: Sanskrit grnati "sings, praises, announces;" Avestan gar- "to praise;" Lithuanian giriu, girti "to praise, celebrate;" Old Celtic bardos "poet, singer."

Since 2011, the at-home DNA testing company 23andMe has invited its users to “celebrate your ancient DNA” with its Neanderthal report, which tells users whether their prehistoric genes predispose them to certain behaviors, like hoarding or not getting hangry. In the 1880s, Neanderthals were not being celebrated at all—they were depicted as little more than troglodytes with tools—and the 1980s weren't much better: rough hair, swarthy skin, dull eyes, jutting foreheads … an evolutionary dead end. Today, armed with recently decoded Neanderthal DNA, researchers are reconstructing these archaic people as lighter-skinned, blue-eyed, and blond. For historian Stefanos Geroulanos, however, this new account raises difficult questions. “Are Neanderthals now smart because they are no longer depicted as dark-skinned? Or, conversely, have they become blond and white because they are now believed to have been smart, able, quintessentially human?” Questions like these form the heart of his book, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins, which has just won Phi Beta Kappa's Ralph Waldo Emerson Book Award. Geroulanos contends that our claims about the deep past—whether made in 1726 or 2026—tell us more about the moment we propose them than anything else.Go beyond the episode:Stefanous Geroulanos's The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human OriginsListen to Geroulanos in conversation at the Phi Beta Kappa 2025 Book AwardsReconstructed ancient languages like Proto-Indo-European have been similarly weaponized for political ends, as Laura Spinney describes on an earlier episodeAnd our understanding of the more recent past—like Viking history, similarly prone—has been challenged by recent archaeological discoveries too, as Eleanor Barraclough explains in Embers of the HandsTune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.Subscribe: iTunes/Apple • Amazon • Google • Acast • PandoraHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textSupposedly, about half of the world population speaks languages that all come from one root language: Proto-Indo-European. How do we know, and where did "PIE" come from? Ukraine, Anatolia, or somewhere else? Did the Indo-Europeans spread out in a massive, peaceful migration of farmers? Or as small bands of shepherds, stealing livestock and killing anyone standing in the way? How do we even know what a prehistoric language sounded like if we don't have any record of their language? In this episode, Colin Gorrie joins us to discuss the opening chapters of Laura Spinney's Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global, a fascinating and enjoyable survey of the current state of research into Proto-Indo-European, and a useful introduction to the fields of historical linguistics, archaeology, and paleogenetics, and how they relate to the question of Indo-European origins.Laura Spinney's Proto: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781639732586Colin Gorrie's YouTube interview with Laura Spinney: https://youtu.be/_nVIV-qaHHYFustel de Coulanges's The Ancient City: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780648690542Erwin Rohde's Psyche: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780415225632New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

In this detour episode we go way, way back.  Six thousand years ago, a language was forming that would spawn dozens of descendants, who came to occupy most of Europe and much of Anatolia, India and Iran. This ancient tongue is Proto-Indo-European. Join Bernie Maoplski of the Fan of History podcast and I, as we chase down the latest theories on the origins of this ancestral language. You can find Bernie's show at https://shows.acast.com/history.

Before there was English, or Latin, or Czech, or Hindi, there was a language that they all have in common, which we call Proto-Indo-European. Linguists have long been fascinated by the quest to get a glimpse into what Proto-Indo-European must have looked like through careful comparisons between languages we do have records for, and this very old topic is still undergoing new discoveries. In this episode, your host Gretchen McCulloch gets enthusiastic about the process of figuring out Proto-Indo-European with Dr. Danny Bate, public linguist, host of the podcast A Language I Love Is..., and author of the book Why Q Needs U. We talk about why figuring out the word order of a 5000-year-old language is harder than figuring out the sounds, and a great pop linguistics/history book we've both been reading that combines recent advances in linguistic, archaeological, and genetic evidence to reexamine where these ancient Proto-Indo-European folks lived: Proto by Laura Spinney. We also talk about Danny's own recent book on the history of the alphabet, featuring fun facts about C, double letters, and izzard! Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjIxNjI5NzcyMA Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/800779835062484992/transcript-episode-110-danny-interview Announcements: In this month's bonus episode we get enthusiastic about celebratory days, years, decades, and more with some relationship to linguistics! We recently learned that people in the UK have been celebrating National Linguistics Day on November 26th and many lingcommers are excited about the idea of taking those celebrations international: World Linguistics Day, anyone? What we learned putting this episode together is that celebratory days take off when groups of people decide to make them happen so…let's see how many different locations around the world we can wish each other Happy World Linguistics Day from this year! Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 100+ other bonus episodes. You'll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds: https://www.patreon.com/posts/142860621 For links to things mentioned in this episode: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/800779694367703040/lingthusiasm-episode-110-the-history-of-the

From Cinderella to Beauty and the Beast, the roots of fairy tales stretch back thousands of years — to the dawn of Indo-European languages and beyond.In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by author and journalist Laura Spinney to explore the origins of mythology. From the tales compiles by the Brothers Grimm to cutting-edge linguistic studies, they explore how ancient myths endure across cultures, and what they reveal about human societies stretching back tens of thousands of years.MOREThe Birth of Indo-European With thanks to the authors of the Proto-Indo European reconstructions Ricardo Ginevra (Assistant Professor of Historical and General Linguistics, Catholic University of Milan) and Andrew Byrd (Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Kentucky). Reconstructions performed by Phil Barnett (MA in Linguistics, University of Kentucky).Click on the following links to listen to the full reconstructions on Youtube:Creation MythDragon-Slaying MythPresented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Tim Astall and the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music courtesy of Epidemic SoundsThe Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we discover the Celtic roots of words for kingdom, rich and related things in Germanic, Romance and other languages. The Proto-Celtic word *rīgyom means kingdom, and comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs (king). Related words in Proto-Celtic include *rīxs (king) and *rīganī (queen) [source] Related in the modern Celtic languages include: rí [ɾˠiː] = […]

In this episode we discover the Celtic roots of words for hostage in Germanic languages, and words related to engagement in Finnic languages. The Proto-Celtic word *geistlos means hostage or bail, and comes from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeydʰ- (to yearn for, to desire) [source] Descendents in the modern Celtic languages include: giall [ɟiəl̪ˠ] = hostage, pledge in […]

In this episode we unearth the Celtic roots of words for birch (tree) in various languages. The Proto-Celtic word *betuyā means birch tree, and comes from Proto-Indo-European *gʷetu-yo-s, from *gʷet- (resin, gum) [source]. Descendents in the modern Celtic languages include: beith = birch (tree), letter B in Ogham (ᚁ) in Irish beithe [behə] birch, birch […]

In this episode we uncover the possible Celtic roots of words for heron in Romance languages. The Proto-Celtic word *korxsā / *korxsiyos means heron or crane [source], and possibly comes from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreik- (to screech, creak), which is imitative in origin [source]. Descendants in the modern Celtic languages include: corr [kəuɾˠ] = (grey) heron, stork, […]

You might be surprised to learn that a “hoosier” isn't necessarily from Indiana. In St. Louis, Missouri, the term hoosier has a whole other meaning. And: Scotland is the home of the Golden Spurtle world championship, but what exactly IS a spurtle? Some of the finest kitchens are stocked with spurtles. Plus, a love poem from a now-extinct language still echoes through the centuries. Also, boire en wifi and other synonyms for airsipping, an anagrammatic word challenge, thivel, good times at the hosie, Proto-Indo-European, sprit, bully pulpit, the vocabulary of Schuylkill County in Pennsylvania, water sommelier, and a punny riddle. Hear hundreds of free episodes and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org. Be a part of the show: call or text 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; elsewhere in the world, call or text +1 619 800 4443. Send voice notes or messages via WhatsApp 16198004443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest: Laura Spinney is a science journalist and the author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World and most recently, Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global. The post The Origins of the Proto-Indo-Europeans appeared first on KPFA.

Most of us speak a descendant of one ancient tongue: Proto-Indo European. Almost all of Europe shares the DNA of its legacy. Acclaimed journalist and author of international bestseller Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World Laura Spinney explores the origins of this ancient language and how it spread far from its cradle near the Black Sea. Reaching the coasts of Scotland and the western reaches of China, traveling across the Mediterranean and deep into South Asia, Indo-European unites Dante's Inferno and the Rig Veda, the knights of Arthurian legend and the early Hittite kings. Now Indo-European languages are spoken by nearly half of humanity. How did this happen? Laura shares the epic journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode we uncover the Celtic roots of words for oar, to row and related things in Basque. The Proto-Celtic word *rāmyos means oar, spade or shovel and comes from the Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (to row) [source]. Descendants in the modern Celtic languages include: rámh [ɾˠɑːv] = oar in Irish ràmh [r̪ˠaːv] = oar, paddle […]

Guest: Laura Spinney is a science journalist and the author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World and most recently, Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global.   The post The Proto-Indo-Europeans appeared first on KPFA.

Episode 37's star language is another 'proto'-tongue, arguably the most famous of all reconstructed prehistoric languages: Proto-Indo-European. This ancient language, whose linguistic descendants can now be found across the world, has long been the goal of an intellectual quest. The task of identifying the facts of PIE began in the realms of philology and linguistics, but archaeology and genetics have since contributed much to our understanding. Bringing together the insights of those three fields was the goal of my guest, the science journalist and writer Laura Spinney, and her book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global is now available to buy, read and enjoy! Laura joins me to discuss the motivations and goals behind Proto and what exactly drew her to research and write about this strange language from along ago. Support the language-loving mission by joining the ALILI Patreon here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/ALanguageILoveIs⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Laura's website: ⁠https://www.lauraspinney.com/⁠ Clip of reconstructed Dragon Slaying Myth in Proto-Indo-European (reconstruction by Andrew M. Byrd and Riccardo Ginevra, voice by Phill Barnett) taken with permission from here: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1SXeSHY9p0⁠Host: Dr. Danny BateGuest: Laura SpinneyAudio Mixing and Mastering: Jeremiah McPaddenMusic: Acoustic Guitar by William KingArtwork: William Marler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we discover the possible Celtic roots of words for doctor in some Germanic languages. The Proto-Celtic word *leigis means healer and either comes from Proto-Germaic *lēkiz (healing, medicine, healer), or directly from the Proto-Indo-European *h₂leg- (to care for) [source]. Descendants in the modern Celtic languages include: lia [l̠ʲiə] = healer, physician in […]

There's a full moon on the rise, and so Charles and Cassie have bolted the doors, stocked up on silver bullets, and armed themselves with any knowledge on Werewolves they can find. Going all the way back to the Paleolithic, they search for signs of wolf men hiding among cave people, Proto-Indo Europeans, Ancient Greeks and Romans, the Norse, and the Medieval Irish, before investigating the infamous Wolf Trials from the 15th century onwards. https://www.patreon.com/theHistocrat https://bsky.app/profile/thehistocrat.bsky.social Mythillogical logo + Thumbnail art by Ettore Mazza. You can find more of Ettore's excellent artwork below: https://www.instagram.com/ettore.mazza/ https://ettoremazza.tumblr.com/ Thumbnail Art by Gunnar Creutz, Falbygdens museum (CC BY-SA 3.0) Suonatore di Liuto Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/  

"One thing that's become abundantly clear from the ancient DNA revolution of the last 10 years is how important migration has been in the history of our species. So, of course, there has been hybridisation, cultural, genetic, linguistic. There is no such thing as a pure people, pure culture, pure language. Genes, culture and language do not map neatly onto each other. This book was a huge amount of work because the only way you can tell the story of Proto Indo European [the ancestor of Latin and Sanskrit and their daughter languages including English, German, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi and many, many others] is by combing the fields of linguistics, archeology and genetics. It's very fast moving and the point of writing the story now is that it's had this huge impetus from genetics" - Laura Spinney, author, Proto; How One Ancient Language Went Global talks to Manjula Narayan about the ancestor of the Indo European family of languages, the Yamnayas, the birth and death of languages, the great migrations out of the Steppes, the Harappan script, multiethnolects and why AI might be great for predicting language change Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer's Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform. Episode Summary In this episode of Writer's Voice, we explore how language shapes history—and how stories shape culture. We first speak with Laura Spinney, author of Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global. She takes us into the world of Proto-Indo-European, a language spoken … Continue reading Laura Spinney & Tonya Todd on Language, Myth & Resistance →

English. French. Italian. Hindi. Greek. Russian. All these different languages can trace their roots to the same origin: Proto-Indo-European, spoken in 4000 BC in the steppe that crosses from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. Whether by migration, diffusion or conquest, the Indo-European languages spread west across Europe, east across Central Asia, and southeast towards India. Laura Spinney writes about Proto-Indo-European—which never existed in a written form—and its many descendants in her latest book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global (William Collins / Bloomsbury: 2025). Laura Spinney is the author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World (PublicAffairs: 2017), which has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and two novels. Her science writing has appeared in The Atlantic, National Geographic, Nature, The Economist, The Guardian, and elsewhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we uncover the possible Celtic roots of words for hillsides and rough scrub land in Romance languages. The Proto-Celtic words *brigā (hill, fortress) and *brixs (hill), both come from Proto-Indo-European *bʰérǵʰ-s (something high up, fortified) [source]. Related words in the modern Celtic languages include: brí [bʲɾʲiː] = brae, hill in Irish bre […]

For centuries, polyglots and the linguistically curious have pointed out the similarities between certain languages of the Eurasian continent. Dante stirred controversy when he first posited that all the Romance languages—Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian—derived from Latin. But by 1786, the British judge and philologist Sir William “Oriental” Jones was applauded when he famously asserted that Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek had “sprung from some common source.” Some 450 years later, linguists and archaeologists have filled in many of the gaps in our knowledge of this common source, called Proto-Indo-European, and sketched out its family tree, the branches of which extend from Scotland to China. But over the past two decades, the study of paleogenetics has radically advanced our understanding of this language—and the people who spoke it some 5,000 years ago. In her new book, Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global, science journalist Laura Spinney tells their story, and that of their linguistic—and in some cases, genetic—offspring, which constitute the world's largest language family.Go beyond the episode:Laura Spinney's Proto: How One Ancient Language Went GlobalOne enduring Indo-European mystery? How Celtic got to IrelandRead the two landmark 2015 studies in Nature identifying the Yamnaya's genetic contributions to EuropePreviously on Smarty Pants: how a language dies, how to live like a NeolithicTune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.Subscribe: iTunes/Apple • Amazon • Google • Acast • Pandora • RSS FeedHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  Today Razib talks to Laura Spinney, Paris-based British author of the forthcoming Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global. A science journalist, translator and author of both fiction and non-fiction, she has written for Nature, National Geographic, The Economist, New Scientist, and The Guardian. Spinney is the author of two novels, Doctor and The Quick, and a collection of oral history in French from Lausanne entitled Rue Centrale. In 2017, she published Pale Rider, an account of the 1918 flu pandemic. She also translated Swiss writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz's novel Derborence into English. Spinney graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Sciences from Durham University and did a journalism residency at Berlin's Planck Institute. First, Razib asks Spinney how difficult it was to integrate archaeology, linguistics and paleogenetics into her narrative in Proto, which traces the rise and proliferation of Indo-European languages from its ancestral proto-Indo-European. She talks about why this was the time to write a book like this for a general audience, as paleogenetics has revolutionized our understanding of recent prehistory, and in particular the questions around the origin of the Indo-Europeans. Razib and Spinney talk about various scenarios that have been bandied about for decades, for example, the arguments between linguistics and archaeologists whether proto-Indo-European was from the steppe or had an Anatolian homeland, and the exact relationship of the Hittites and their language to other Indo-European branches. They also delve into how genetics has helped shed light on deeper connections between some branches, like Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian, or Greek and Armenian. Spinney also addresses how writing a book like Proto involves placing fields like historical linguistics and archaeology with charged political associations in their proper historical context

In this episode we discover the Celtic roots of words for cradle, crib and related things in Portuguese and other languages. The Proto-Celtic word *bereti means to carry or bear, and comes from Proto-Indo-European bʰéreti (to be carrying), from *bʰer- (to bear, carry) [source]. Related words in the modern Celtic languages include: beir [bʲɛɾʲ] = […]

English. French. Italian. Hindi. Greek. Russian. All these different languages can trace their roots to the same origin: Proto-Indo-European, spoken in 4000 BC in the steppe that crosses from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. Whether by migration, diffusion or conquest, the Indo-European languages spread west across Europe, east across Central Asia, and southeast towards India. Laura Spinney writes about Proto-Indo-European—which never existed in a written form—and its many descendants in her latest book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global (William Collins / Bloomsbury: 2025). Laura Spinney is the author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World (PublicAffairs: 2017), which has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and two novels. Her science writing has appeared in The Atlantic, National Geographic, Nature, The Economist, The Guardian, and elsewhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

English. French. Italian. Hindi. Greek. Russian. All these different languages can trace their roots to the same origin: Proto-Indo-European, spoken in 4000 BC in the steppe that crosses from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. Whether by migration, diffusion or conquest, the Indo-European languages spread west across Europe, east across Central Asia, and southeast towards India. Laura Spinney writes about Proto-Indo-European—which never existed in a written form—and its many descendants in her latest book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global (William Collins / Bloomsbury: 2025). Laura Spinney is the author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World (PublicAffairs: 2017), which has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and two novels. Her science writing has appeared in The Atlantic, National Geographic, Nature, The Economist, The Guardian, and elsewhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review

In this episode we unearth the possible Celtic roots of words for field and related things in Galician and other languages. The Proto-Celtic word *ɸlārom means floor and comes from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂ros (to be flat, from *pleh₂- (flat) [source]. Related words in the modern Celtic languages include: lár [l̪ˠɑːɾˠ] = ground, floor, middle, centre in […]

From the steppes of prehistoric Eurasia to the languages we speak today, the story of Indo-European is one of ancient roots and global impact. But what exactly is Indo-European? Who spoke it? And how did a single language family come to dominate nearly half the world?In this episode, Tristan Hughes is joined by Laura Spinney to uncover the origins of Proto-Indo-European. From Sanskrit to Latin, mythological echoes to linguistic detective work, discover how archaeology, genetics and early literature help trace this lost language and the diverse prehistoric peoples who once spoke it.Presented by Tristan Hughes. The producer is Joseph Knight, audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.All music from Epidemic SoundsSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here.

Laura Spinney is the author of two novels and three non-fiction books, including Pale Rider, a historical exploration of the 1918 flu epidemic, which came out in 2017. In this interview, we discuss her latest book, Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global, which traces the evolution of Proto-Indo-European — the hypothetical, reconstructed common ancestor of all languages in the Indo-European language family — from its purported origins with the Yamnaya people of the Pontic steppe through migrations and metamorphoses into nearly 450 languages spoken by 3.4 billion people worldwide today.

In this episode we unravel the Celtic roots of words for wheel, rim and related things in French, Spanish and other languages. The Proto-Celtic word *kambitā means rim and comes from Proto-Celtic *kambos (twisted, crooked, bent), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱh₂embos (crooked), possibly from *(s)ḱamb- (bent, crooked) [source]. Related words in the modern Celtic languages include: camedd […]

In this episode we discover the flatulent Celtic roots of words for to bray and related things in English, French and other languages. The Proto-Celtic word *bragyeti means to fart or flatulate and comes from Proto-Celtic *braxsman (fart), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreHg- (to stink, smell, have a strong odour) [source]. Related words in the modern Celtic […]

In this episode we discover the possible Celtic roots of words for soot in English, French and various other languages. The Proto-Celtic word *sūdyā means soot and comes from Proto-Indo-European *suh₃d- (soot [?]), or from sed- (to sit) [source]. Related words in the modern Celtic languages include: súiche [ˈsˠuːçɪ] = soot in Irish sùith [suːj] […]

In this episode we discover the Celtic roots of words for quay, jetty, pier, etc. in English, French and other languages. Bangor Pier. Photo by Simon Ager The Proto-Celtic word *kagyom means pen or enclosure, and comes from the Proto-Indo-European *kagʰyóm (enclosure, hedge), from *kagʰ- (to keep, hold, close, enclose, fence, hedge, barrier, field, pasture) […]

In this episode we discover the possible Celtic roots of English and French words for seagull. The Proto-Celtic word *wailannā means seagull, and possibly comes from the Proto-Indo-European *wáy (oh! ah! woe! alas!), and maybe related to *waylos (howler, wolf) [source]. Related words in the modern Celtic languages include: faoileán = gull, seagull in Irish […]

In this episode we discover the possible Celtic roots of some words for sword, hammer and related things in Romance and Slavic languages. The Proto-Celtic word *kladiwos means sword, and comes from Proto-Celtic *kladeti (to stab, dig), from Proto-Indo-European *kl̥h₂dʰ-é-ti, from *kelh₂- (to beat, strike) [source]. Related words in the modern Celtic languages include: claíomh […]

In this episode we discover the possible Celtic roots of some words for hound and sleuth in Romance languages. The Proto-Celtic word sekʷetor means to follow, and comes from Proto-Indo-European *sékʷetor (to be following), from *sekʷ- (to follow) [source]. Related words in the modern Celtic languages include: seicheamh (following, taking after, imitating, sequence, progression) and […]

History has been used and misused in many ways as part of the Russo-Ukraine War. Russia has justified its aggression through bizarre appeals to medieval Princes. Ukrainian units name themselves for Scythians and Cossacks. We run through an overview of Ukrainian history and pre-history. 00:02:40 - The Proto-Indo-Europeans through the Greeks 00:17:24 - Turks and Slavs 00:23:58 - Kyivan Rus 00:38:57 - Ukraine after the Mongols 00:44:22 - The rise of the Cossacks 00:56:49 - From Khmelnytsky to Mazepa 01:08:39 - Poland and Ukraine fall together 01:15:08 - The Long 19th Century 01:25:53 - Between World Wars 01:38:16 - The post-Stalin Soviet Union 01:44:19 - Ukrainian Independence Twitter Anthony: @Bartaway Romeo: @VagrantJourno Ukraine Without Hype: @HypeUkraine Other Social Media http://youtube.com/@UkraineWithoutHype http://tiktok.com/@ukrainewithouthype http://instagram.com/ukrainewithouthype/ Patreon https://www.patreon.com/UkraineWithoutHype Resources and Charities https://linktr.ee/ukrainewithouthype Music Shchedryk - Carol of the Bells (Traditional)

In this episode we uncover links between words for country and land in Celtic languages, and words for garden, wood and related things in other languages. Bodnant Garden / Gardd Bodnant The Proto-Celtic word *mrogis means border(land), march, mark, region, country, territory or province, and comes from Proto-Indo-European *mórǵs (frontier, border) [source] Related words in […]

In this episode we discover the possible Celtic roots of words such as tan, tannin and Tannenbaum. The Proto-Celtic word *tannos means green oak, and comes from Proto-Indo-European *(s)dʰnwos/*(s)dʰonu (fir). Related words in the Celtic languages include: tinne = the letter t in the Ogham alphabet (ᚈ) in Irish tinne [tʲenə] = the letter t […]

Working backwards from existing languages, linguists have had great success reconstructing Proto-Indo-European. Does that mean we can do the same for all language families? John explains. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lexiconvalley.substack.com

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib welcomes back a returning guest, J. P. Mallory, to discuss his reaction to the recent preprint The Genetic Origin of the Indo-Europeans. Mallory is the author of In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth, The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World and The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. He is also a retired professor from Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland. An archaeologist who trained under Marija Gimbutas, Mallory has long used linguistics to complement his disciplinary training in archaeology to understand the origin and location of Indo-European languages. Though Mallory admires The Genetic Origin of the Indo-Europeans, he still thinks more work needs to be done to pinpoint the original homeland of the Yamnaya or their ancestors. The fact is that the preprint remains somewhat vague in its final conclusion, and more work is needed to make sure the populace acquires the same level of community. Mallory also discusses the challenges inherent in interdisciplinary work, synthesizing archaeology, linguistics and now genetics. He believes that a key to grasping the emergence of pre/proto-Indo-European is tracing lineage groups through their Y chromosomes, as the genetics, mythology and anthropology indicate that pre/proto-Indo-Europeans were quite patriarchal and patrilineal. Though Mallory is hopeful that we are making progress on the topic of Indo-Europeans he worries that the fraught situation of disciplinary rivalries will retard synergy, where archaeogenetics engages in excessive imperialism vis-a-vis archaeology and linguistics.

A new paper called The Genetic Origin of the Indo-Europeans (2024) reveals that the Proto-Indo-European languages originated in the Yamnaya and Sredny Stog cultures of Ukraine and South Russia. The split of PIE languages from Anatolian languages is revealed to have taken place on the steppe. Sredny Stog DNA is found in Hittite samples proving the real IE people were Steppe herders from Eastern Europe and not an unknown Armenian population as previously claimed. I discuss the findings in this streamCondense lengthy texts into 25 min summaries with Liegent https://liegent.comPlease support this podcast: https://linktr.ee/SurvivetheJive 

971. Linguists have traced modern languages like English and Sanskrit back over thousands of years to a single Proto-Indo-European source. This week, we explore their detective work and the debates around the origins of the ancestral tongue.This piece was written by Kurt Kleiner, a freelance science and technology writer living in Toronto. It originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, a digital publication dedicated to making scientific knowledge accessible to all. Explore the latest at knowablemagazine.org.| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/indo-european/transcript| Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.| Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates.| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.| Peeve Wars card game. | Grammar Girl books. | HOST: Mignon Fogarty| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.Audio Engineer: Nathan SemesDirector of Podcast: Brannan GoetschiusAdvertising Operations Specialist: Morgan ChristiansonMarketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina TomlinDigital Operations Specialist: Holly Hutchings| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.

In this episode of The Break I share my first impressions of the live action series 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' and of season 3 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch. I also talk about rereading Lord of the Rings and about the death of Star Trek actor Kenneth Mitchell. In the premium section of the show, available to my patrons, I talk about Baldur's Gate 3, the Apple Vision Pro and about the Proto-Indo-European language in Alien: Prometheus. Link: Proto-Indo-European language in Alien Prometheus: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZIJnuq2w9/

968. This week, I expand on my comments for the New York Times about Taylor Swift's grammatically sound but apostrophe-free new album title: "The Tortured Poets Department." Plus, we dive deep into the nuances between "loving" someone and being "in love," tracing how the word evolved from the ancient Proto-Indo-European root "leubh" yet still doesn't fully capture love's complexity across languages. The "in love" segment was written by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of "Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English." You can find her at valeriefridland.com.| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/taylor-swift-apostrophe/transcript| Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.| Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates.| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.| Peeve Wars card game. | Grammar Girl books. | HOST: Mignon Fogarty| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.Audio Engineer: Nathan SemesDirector of Podcast: Brannan GoetschiusAdvertising Operations Specialist: Morgan ChristiansonMarketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina TomlinDigital Operations Specialist: Holly Hutchings| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.