The Pre-Indo-European languages are any of several ancient languages, not necessarily related to one another, that existed in Prehistoric Europe and

Southern Asia Southern Asia may refer to: * South Asia, a geopolitical macroregion of SAARC countries * Southern Asia, a geographical subregion in Asia spanning the Iranian Plateau and the Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the phy ...

before the arrival of speakers of

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, ...

. The oldest Indo-European language texts date from the 19th century BC in Kültepe (modern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

), and while estimates vary widely, the spoken Indo-European languages are believed to have developed at the latest by the 3rd millennium BC (see

Proto-Indo-European Urheimat hypotheses The Proto-Indo-European homeland (or Indo-European homeland) was the prehistoric linguistic homeland of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). From this region, its speakers migrated east and west, and went on to form the proto-communities of ...

). Thus, the Pre-Indo-European languages must have developed earlier than or, in some cases, alongside the Indo-European languages that ultimately displaced them. A handful of the pre-Indo-European languages still survive; in Europe, Basque retains a localised strength, with fewer than a million native speakers, but the Dravidian languages remain very widespread in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India ...

, with over 200 million native speakers (the four major languages being

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

, Tamil, Kannada and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

). Some of the pre-Indo-European languages are attested only as linguistic substrates in Indo-European languages.

Terminology

Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, all the unclassified languages of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

and the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

were commonly referred to as ''Asianic languages'', and the term encompassed several languages that were later found to be Indo-European (such as Lydian), and others (such as

Hurro-Urartian The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian and Urartian. Origins It is often assumed that the Hurro-Urartian languages (or a pre-split Proto-Hurro-Urartian l ...

, Hattic), which were classified as distinct language families. In 1953, the linguist Johannes Hubschmid identified at least five pre-Indo-European language families in Western Europe: Eurafrican, which covered North Africa, Italy, Spain and France; Hispano-Caucasian, which replaced Eurafrican and stretched from Northern Spain to the Caucasus Mountains; Iberian, which was spoken by most of Spain prior to the Roman conquest of the Iberian peninsula; Libyan, which was spoken mostly in North Africa but encroached into Sardinia; and Etruscan, which was spoken in Northern Italy. The term pre-Indo-European is not universally accepted, as some linguists maintain the idea of the relatively late arrival of the speakers of the unclassified languages to Europe, possibly even after the Indo-European languages, and so prefer to speak about non-Indo-European languages. A new term, Paleo-European, is not applicable to the languages that predated or coexisted with Indo-European outside Europe.

Surviving languages

These pre-Indo-European languages have survived to modern times: * in the

, the Dravidian languages, Munda languages (a branch of the Austroasiatic languages),

Tibeto-Burman languages The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people sp ...

, Nihali, Kusunda, Vedda and

Burushaski Burushaski (; ) is a language isolate spoken by Burusho people, who reside almost entirely in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, with a few hundred speakers in northern Jammu and Kashmir, India. In Pakistan, Burushaski is spoken by people i ...

. * in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

, the

Kartvelian Kartvelian may refer to: * Anything coming from or related to Georgia (country) * Kartvelian languages * Kartvelian alphabet, see Georgian alphabet * Kartvelian studies * Georgians The Georgians, or Kartvelians (; ka, ქართველ� ...

, Northeast Caucasian,

Northwest Caucasian The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called West Caucasian, Abkhazo-Adyghean, Abkhazo-Circassian, Circassic, or sometimes ''Pontic languages'' (from the historical region of Pontus, in contrast to ''Caspian languages'' for the Northeast Cauc ...

. * in the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

, Basque. * in Northern Eurasia, the Paleosiberian languages and the Uralic languages, although in Finland there is also evidence of an Indo-European substrate preceding Finno-Ugric, as well as Paleo-European substrates preceding both.

Languages that contributed substrates to Indo-European languages

Examples of suggested or known substrate influences on specific Indo-European languages include the following: *Pre-Anatolian: ** Hattic language *Pre-Armenian: ** Hurro-Urartian languages *

Substrate in Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit has a number of linguistic features which are alien to most other Indo-European languages. Prominent examples include: phonologically, the introduction of retroflexes, which alternate with dentals, and morphologically, the formatio ...

, proposed sources for which include: ** Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (possible source of Sanskrit vocabulary, language not attested) ** Harappan language (not attested in readable script; see Indus script) ** Elamite language ** Lullubi language ** Vedda language ** Burushaski language ** Dravidian languages ** Munda languages ** Nihali language **

*Substrates to early undifferentiated or partly-differentiated Indo-European in Western Europe: **

Old European hydronymy Old European (german: Alteuropäisch) is the term used by Hans Krahe (1964) for the language of the oldest reconstructed stratum of European hydronymy (river names) in Central and Western Europe.Hans Krahe, ''Unsere ältesten Flussnamen'', Wiesbad ...

(possibly Indo-European, as originally thought by Krahe) ** Vasconic substrate hypothesis ** Tyrsenian languages *

Pre-Greek substrate The Pre-Greek substrate (or Pre-Greek substratum) consists of the unknown pre-Indo-European language(s) spoken in prehistoric Greece before the coming of the Proto-Greek language in the Greek peninsula during the Bronze Age. It is possible that ...

languages, which may have included: ** Minoan language (see also Linear A,

Cretan hieroglyphs Cretan hieroglyphs are a hieroglyphic writing system used in early Bronze Age Crete, during the Minoan era. They predate Linear A by about a century, but the two writing systems continued to be used in parallel for most of their history. , ...

) ** Eteocretan language (may have been a descendant of Minoan) ** Eteocypriot language (see also Cypro-Minoan script) ** Lemnian language (probably related to Etruscan) * Pre-Germanic: ** Germanic substrate hypothesis * Pre-Celtic languages: **Insular Celtic: *** Goidelic substrate hypothesis ***For the British Isles, see Celtic settlement of Great Britain and Ireland **Continental Celtic: *** Paleohispanic languages ****

Vasconic languages The Vasconic languages (from Latin 'Basque') are a putative family of languages that includes Basque and the extinct Aquitanian language. The extinct Iberian language is sometimes putatively included. The concept of the Vasconic languages is o ...

***** Proto-Basque ***** Aquitanian language (often thought to be the direct ancestor of Basque) ****

Iberian language The Iberian language was the language of an indigenous western European people identified by Greek and Roman sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian Peninsula in the pre-Migration Era (before about 375 AD). The a ...

**** Tartessian language (classification as Celtic has been proposed) *Pre-

Italic languages The Italic languages form a branch of the Indo-European language family, whose earliest known members were spoken on the Italian Peninsula in the first millennium BC. The most important of the ancient languages was Latin, the official langua ...

: ** Tyrsenian languages ***

Etruscan language Etruscan () was the language of the Etruscan civilization, in Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria (modern Tuscany, western Umbria, northern Latium, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Lombardy and Campania). Etruscan influenced Latin but was event ...

*** Raetic language (probably related to Etruscan) ** Camunic language (probably Raetic) **

Elymian language Elymian is the extinct language of the ancient Elymian people of western Sicily. Its characteristics are little known because of the extremely limited and fragmentary nature of the surviving texts. The origins of Elymian and its exact relations ...

(perhaps Indo-European) ** North Picene language ** Paleo-Sardinian language (also called Paleosardinian, Protosardic, Nuraghic language) ** Sicanian language **

Ligurian language Ligurian () or Genoese () (locally called or ) is a Gallo-Italic language spoken primarily in the territories of the former Republic of Genoa, now comprising the area of Liguria in Northern Italy, parts of the Mediterranean coastal zone of Fran ...

(perhaps Indo-European) Other propositions are generally rejected by modern linguists: * Atlantic (Semitic) languages

Attested languages

Languages attested in inscriptions include the following: * Tartessian * Iberian * Aquitanian * Etruscan *

Rhaetian The Rhaetian is the latest age of the Triassic Period (in geochronology) or the uppermost stage of the Triassic System (in chronostratigraphy). It was preceded by the Norian and succeeded by the Hettangian (the lowermost stage or earliest age ...

* Camunic *

Lemnian The Lemnian language was spoken on the island of Lemnos, Greece, in the second half of the 6th century BC. It is mainly attested by an inscription found on a funerary stele, termed the Lemnos stele, discovered in 1885 near Kaminia. Fragments of ...

* Minoan *

Eteocretan Eteocretan ( from grc-gre, Ἐτεόκρητες, Eteókrētes, lit. "true Cretans", itself composed from ἐτεός ''eteós'' "true" and Κρής ''Krḗs'' "Cretan") is the pre-Greek language attested in a few alphabetic inscriptions of a ...

* Eteocypriot * Hattic * Urartian

Later Indo-European expansion

Further, there have been replacements of Indo-European languages by others, most prominently of most of the

Celtic languages The Celtic languages (usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edwar ...

by Germanic or Romance varieties because of Roman rule and the invasions of Germanic tribes. Also, however, languages replaced or engulfed by Indo-European in ancient times must be distinguished from languages replaced or engulfed by Indo-European languages in more recent times. In particular, the vast majority of the major languages spread by

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their rel ...

have been Indo-European, which has in the last few centuries led to superficially similar linguistic islands being formed by, for example, indigenous languages of the Americas (now surrounded by English, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

), as well as of several Uralic languages (now surrounded by Russian). Many creole languages have also arisen based upon Indo-European colonial languages.

References

Bibliography

Archaeology and culture

* Anthony, David with Jennifer Y. Chi (eds., 2009). The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000–3500 BC. * Bogucki, Peter I. and Pam J. Crabtree (eds. 2004). Ancient Europe 8000 BC—1000 AD: An Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. * Gimbutas, Marija (1973). Old Europe c. 7000–3500 B.C.: the earliest European cultures before the infiltration of the Indo-European peoples. The Journal of Indo-European Studies 1/1-2. 1-20. * Tilley, Christopher (1996). An Ethnography of the Neolithic. Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern Scandinavia. Cambridge University Press.

Linguistic reconstructions

* Bammesberger, Alfred & Theo Vennemann, eds. ''Languages in Prehistoric Europe''. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 2003. * Blench, Roger, & Matthew Spriggs, eds. ''Archaeology and Language''. Vol. 1, ''Theoretical and Methodological Orientations''. London/NY: Routeledge, 1997. * Dolukhanov, Pavel M. “Archaeology and Languages in Prehistoric Northern Eurasia”, ''Japan Review'' 15 (2003): 175–186. https://web.archive.org/web/20110721072713/http://shinku.nichibun.ac.jp/jpub/pdf/jr/IJ1507.pdf * Gimbutas, Marija. ''The Language of the Goddess: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization''. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989. * Greppin, John and T.L.Markey, eds. ''When Worlds Collide: The Indo-Europeans and the Pre-Indo-Europeans''. Ann Arbor: 1990. * Haarmann, H. “Ethnicity and language in the ancient Mediterranean”, in ''A companion to ethnicity in the ancient Mediterranean''. Edited by J. McInerney. Wiley Blackwell, 2014, pp. 17–33. * Lehmann, Winfred P. ''Pre-Indo-European''. Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man. 2002. . * Mailhammer, Robert
“Diversity vs. Uniformity. Europe before the Arrival of Indo-European Languages”
in ''The Linguistic Roots of Europe: Origin and Development of European Languages''. Edited by Robert Mailhammer & Theo Vennemann. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2016. * “Pre-Indo-European”, in ''Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe''. Edited by Glanville Price. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. . * * Vennemann, Theo. Languages in Prehistoric Europe north of the Alps. https://www.scribd.com/doc/8670/Languages-in-prehistoric-Europe-north-of-the-Alps * Vennemann, Theo (2008). Linguistic reconstruction in the context of European prehistory. Transactions of the Philological Society. Volume 92, Issue 2, pages 215–284, November 1994 * Woodard, Roger D. (ed., 2008) Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press. * Woodard, Roger D. (2008) Ancient Languages of Europe. Cambridge University Press.

External links

*
Reconstructed migration of language families and archaeological cultures in Europe during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pre-Indo-European languages Language histories Prehistoric Europe Ancient Europe Historical linguistics Extinct languages