We Know Languages Like Proto-Indo-European Existed [video]

Re:We Know Languages Like Proto-Indo-European Existed [video] by qwytw on Monday September 04, 2023 @05:39AM (#37378775)

The problem is that there is very little material to work with because all non-PIE languages besides Basque have been lost and what little we have of Tyrsenian (and to an even much lesser Tartessian and some others) is really insufficient to make any substantial claims about their origins or shared features.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We Know Languages Like Proto-Indo-European Existed [video] by jpmoral on Monday September 04, 2023 @08:31AM (#37379863)

> all non-PIE languages besides Basque have been lost Do you mean non-PIE European languages?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We Know Languages Like Proto-Indo-European Existed [video] by qwytw on Monday September 04, 2023 @09:04AM (#37380106)

Yes of course (I would generally expect most European linguists and anthropologists to be more interested in studying European languages due to obvious reasons).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We Know Languages Like Proto-Indo-European Existed [video] by jpmoral on Tuesday September 05, 2023 @08:47AM (#37390925)

Thanks. I asked because this is a topic that interests me that I don't know a lot about. I wasn't sure whether there was a theory that (almost) everything is PIE or whether there was an Asian component to your comment or something else that was in my unknown unknowns.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We Know Languages Like Proto-Indo-European Existed [video] by edgyquant on Monday September 04, 2023 @11:58AM (#37381717)

Yea this is obviously what he meant given the context, this comment was unnecessary and pedantic: do better. Also you need to add double new lines after your quote

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We Know Languages Like Proto-Indo-European Existed [video] by jpmoral on Tuesday September 05, 2023 @08:28AM (#37390755)

Wow. I asked because this is a topic that interests me that I don't know a lot about. I wasn't sure whether there was a theory that (almost) everything is PIE or whether there was an Asian component to the comment or something else that was in my unknown unknowns.

Don't jump down people's throats based on uncharitable readings of what they wrote.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We Know Languages Like Proto-Indo-European Existed [video] by hzay on Monday September 04, 2023 @09:17AM (#37380186)

Dravidian languages are extremely not lost.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We Know Languages Like Proto-Indo-European Existed [video] by qwytw on Monday September 04, 2023 @09:38AM (#37380352)

I'm aware that an overwhelming majority of the global population use non IE languages. I just wouldn't expect that most research related to them would be published in English (and even if it was it would probably be much harder to understand for people who only speak English + other IE languages).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We Know Languages Like Proto-Indo-European Existed [video] by edgyquant on Monday September 04, 2023 @12:01PM (#37381753)

This other commenters are just being pedantic and have nothing to add. What you meant was perfectly valid English and there’s no need to explain you meant European languages when discussing European languages.

However I do not believe your comment about the “vast majority” of languages is accurate. I indo-European languages make up about half of all languages on the planet (3.2 billion) and no other language family comes close.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We Know Languages Like Proto-Indo-European Existed [video] by PeterisP on Monday September 04, 2023 @01:20PM (#37382615)

Even in Europe we have Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian as reasonably large non-indoeuropean languages; Maltese as an example of a Semitic EU language, and of course Turkic languages are also right there.

[ Parent | on HN ]