Indo-European languages

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In the period after World War II, several Indo-European scholars (e.g. Roger Pearson, Jean Haudry and the influential [[Georges Dumézil]]<ref>Arvidsson, Stefan (2006), Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, translated by Sonia Wichmann, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 2, 3, 241 ff., 306</ref>) and writers influenced by Indo-European studies (e.g. Alain de Benoist) were accused of having sympathies for Fascism or Nazism.  It was alleged that their political beliefs may have influenced their studies.<ref>Arvidsson 2006. Bruce Lincoln. Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship (1999).</ref> Arvidsson speculated that the fact that many Indo-European scholars identify themselves as the descendants of the ancient Indo-Europeans may explain why the field of Indo-European studies has also been ideologically abused.<ref>Arvidsson 2006:3, 308, 320</ref>  
 
In the period after World War II, several Indo-European scholars (e.g. Roger Pearson, Jean Haudry and the influential [[Georges Dumézil]]<ref>Arvidsson, Stefan (2006), Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, translated by Sonia Wichmann, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 2, 3, 241 ff., 306</ref>) and writers influenced by Indo-European studies (e.g. Alain de Benoist) were accused of having sympathies for Fascism or Nazism.  It was alleged that their political beliefs may have influenced their studies.<ref>Arvidsson 2006. Bruce Lincoln. Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship (1999).</ref> Arvidsson speculated that the fact that many Indo-European scholars identify themselves as the descendants of the ancient Indo-Europeans may explain why the field of Indo-European studies has also been ideologically abused.<ref>Arvidsson 2006:3, 308, 320</ref>  
  
Anthony remarked that "Indo-European linguistics and archaeology have been exploited to support openly ideological agendas for so long that a brief history of the issue quickly becomes entangled with the intellectual history of Europe."<ref>David Anthony 1995 "Nazi and Eco-Feminist Prehistories: Ideology and Empiricism in Indo-European Archaeology. In Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology (82-96) Ed. P.Kohl and Fawcett. Cambridge University Press.</ref>
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Anthony remarked that "Indo-European linguistics and archaeology have been exploited to support openly ideological agendas for so long that a brief history of the issue quickly becomes entangled with the intellectual history of Europe."<ref>David Anthony 1995 "Nazi and Eco-Feminist Prehistories: Ideology and Empiricism in Indo-European Archaeology. In Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology (82-96) Ed. P.Kohl and Fawcett. Cambridge University Press.</ref><ref>Portions of this text are adapted from the [[Wikipedia]] article on [[wp:Indo-European_studies|Indo-European studies]].</ref?
  
 
The overwhelming current scholarly consensus places the Indo-European homeland in the area of the Black Sea; a minority say [[Turkey|Anatolia]], but most say that the steppes of [[Ukraine]] and [[Kazakhstan]] are the Indo-European homeland.
 
The overwhelming current scholarly consensus places the Indo-European homeland in the area of the Black Sea; a minority say [[Turkey|Anatolia]], but most say that the steppes of [[Ukraine]] and [[Kazakhstan]] are the Indo-European homeland.

Revision as of 05:06, 15 December 2013

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The dark green countries have Indo-European speaking majorities. In the pale green countries, an Indo-European minority language has co-official status.

The Indo-European languages are a widely distributed family of languages, all descended from a hypothetical and partically reconstructable ancestor, the Proto-Indo-European language. Languages of this family, native to Europe or Asia, were spoken in historical times from Iceland to Sri Lanka, they have spread by colonialism to become the overwhelmingly predominant languages of North and South America, Australia, and widely present in Africa as well. They are an evil linguistic token of the hegemony of the white patriarchal paradigm. If you can understand this text, you have already been defiled.

Their startling discovery

A variety of writers had observed that languages such as Russian appeared to be related to Greek and Latin; Mihkail Lomonosov noted the similarities between Russian, Greek, Latin, and the Baltic ("Courlandic") languages in his 1755 Russian Grammar, inviting us to "(i)magine the depth of time when these languages separated! ... Polish and Russian separated so long ago! Now think how long ago [this happened to] Kurlandic! Think when [this happened to] Latin, Greek, German, and Russian! Oh, great antiquity!" But it was Sir William Jones, a British judge stationed in India, who noticed the strong similarity between Sanskrit and Classical Greek:[1]

The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.

It was, in fact, quite a startle for white Britons to discover that brown heathens were speaking a language closely akin to Ancient Greek.

Conquerors?

The Indo-European languages are one of history's success stories. As such, their origin and the reasons for their spread have given rise to speculation of varying quality. Was it some prowess or warlike virtue of the Aryans -- apparently what the Indo-Europeans called themselves, attested in that form in India, also in the names of the countries Iran, and maybe, Ireland (Éire) that spread their language across five continents? It's suggested that they were the first to master horseback riding, wagons, and chariots as military technologies. They spread their language everywhere by prowess and technology. There is a feminist counternarrative here, from Robert Graves, Marija Gimbutas, and many others: that the Aryans were barbaric, cruel conquerors who put the utopian civilization of the Goddess to the torch, and imposed a cruel patriarchy.

In fact, it's likelier that the Indo-Europeans were horse breeders and traders as well as warriors, who established a trade network that stretched from the Balkans to east of the Black Sea. Their mobility and wealth, as much as their military prowess, persuaded people to adopt their language as a second language over a wide area. Any wars fought were local and minor; and the culture they displaced was no utopia.

Where do they come from?

If you admire these guys, you might want to claim your own country as their homeland. There are a variety of nationalistic claims; Nazi Germany notoriously claimed to be the Aryan homeland; and strains of Hindu nationalism also assert that the Sanskrit language is indigenous to India.

In the period after World War II, several Indo-European scholars (e.g. Roger Pearson, Jean Haudry and the influential Georges Dumézil[2]) and writers influenced by Indo-European studies (e.g. Alain de Benoist) were accused of having sympathies for Fascism or Nazism. It was alleged that their political beliefs may have influenced their studies.[3] Arvidsson speculated that the fact that many Indo-European scholars identify themselves as the descendants of the ancient Indo-Europeans may explain why the field of Indo-European studies has also been ideologically abused.[4]

Anthony remarked that "Indo-European linguistics and archaeology have been exploited to support openly ideological agendas for so long that a brief history of the issue quickly becomes entangled with the intellectual history of Europe."[5][6]


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