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Now, let's talk about the Indo-Europeans!
The purpose of this section of The Droops Net is to talk about the Indo-Europeans. Here you will find information about Indo-European mythology, the homeland questions, some archaeological topics, linguistics, and the languages themselves. While this will not be comprehensive, and I am by no means an expert, I hope that this will serve to intoduce the general net population to this neglected group.
My interest in this topic occured during graduate school, when I finally learned Portuguese. It motivated me to go back and study Homeric Greek, which in turn spurred me on to study the roots of that language. When I came onto the net and tried to search for more information on the Indo-Europeans, I was shocked to discover that almost nothing existed! I hope that this remedies a grave oversight.
Comments are welcome. With any luck, this will serve as a starting point for debate and a collection of ideas on the subject. Anything that I deem to be worthy may be added, at my discretion. Origination of all information will be attributed, including what I myself use. This is a vast undertaking, and I hope that it will be well-received.
If you are reading this, and this is your native language, then YOU are an Indo-European! Bet you never thought of that! Today, an Indo-European can be broadly defined as someone whose native language is in the Indo-European family. English belongs, as do most of the languages of Europe and a sizeable chuck of languages in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. There are no racial/ethnic, religious, or geographical connotations to this. Its only language-based.
Of course, it wasn't always this way. A few thousand years ago, there was a group of people that we can generically call 'Indo-Europeans.' They had language, culture, religion, beliefs, and practices. Over time, the group split into subgroups, each one forming a dialect, then a separate language. With that came new beliefs and practices, with each new generation moving farther and farther away from the original ancestor and mingling with new people. However, each group retained parts of the original. It is through comparison of these similar parts that experts have attempted to reconstruct the Indo-European world. In many ways, the success of this endeavor is astonishing. I guarantee you that your outlook on your place in the world will change once you examine this closely.
I said before that this was a neglected group. Really, that isn't quite true. What happens is that scholars concentrate on the various branches of the family, but neglect the roots. It isn't difficult to see why. Think of all of the work that his been done on ancient Greece or Rome. Think of the biblical studies of the Hittites, or the Irish celtic mythology, or the rising of civilization north of the Indus river in India. Each of these topics alone, plus countless others, can consume lifetimes of effort. Yet they are only branches of the Indo-European whole. If someone were foolish enough to try and write a history of the Indo-European peoples over the last 6,000 years, it would literally fill a library and describe most of the major events in world history. I am NOT going to try that! Most Indo-European scholars try to concentrate on these branches before they emerge in history. I'll be giving an overview of that, and what some of the branches have done over time.
I'm dividing this into three parts. One part will deal with the Indo-Europeans and their physical locations, migrations, and such. Archaeology, basically. Another part will deal with Indo-European mythology and how it filters through our beliefs today. Finally, we will discuss the languages themselves, with some linguistics thrown in for good fun. Below, you'll find a flow-chart showing all of the past and present Indo-European languages. Some of this may be contentious, but it is what I think best represents the facts available. I'll use this chart in discussing the languages and linguistics. Its a far-reaching task, but one that I hope will yield some positive results.
Most of my knowledge is self-taught, and I welcome additional comments on all sections. You will also find a copy of my own meagre contribution to this field, a class paper that I did a couple of years ago. While I realize that it needs work, I hope that it provides some insight on subjects that hitherto have not been explored.
Below is a map of the Indo-European languages, both past and present. I'm including this here so that you can get an idea of the size and scope of this language family. The chart is my own creation, based on some of my own studies. There are parts of it that can be disputed, and some would vehemently argue with me on some of these. However, to the best of my knowledge and belief, this is an accurate portrait of the IE language family. If you want to learn more about any of these languages, just click on the button.
The key to the colors is below the map. Shaded shapes indicate no written records are available.
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