Indo-European cereal terminology suggests a Northwest Pontic homeland for the core Indo-European languages

Bibliographic Data

ID23146014
AuthorsGuus Kroonen (0000-0002-3708-0476, Leiden University, corresponding author), Anthony Jakob (0000-0002-2603-3201, Leiden University), Axel I Palmér (0000-0002-3603-2472, Leiden University), Paulus Van Sluis (0000-0003-1656-679X, Leiden University), Andrew Wigman (0000-0002-3833-3324, Leiden University)
EditorsSøren Wichmann (0000-0002-3257-3087)
Year2022
Volume17
Issue10
Pagese0275744
Publication date2022-10-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePLoS ONE (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1932-6203 • E-ISSN: 1932-6203
PublisherPublic Library of Science (PLoS) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1371/journal.pone.0275744
PMID36223379
OpenAlexW4304701079
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited87

Questions on the timing and the center of the Indo-European language dispersal are central to debates on the formation of the European and Asian linguistic landscapes and are deeply intertwined with questions on the archaeology and population history of these continents. Recent palaeogenomic studies support scenarios in which the core Indo-European languages spread with the expansion of Early Bronze Age Yamnaya herders that originally inhabited the East European steppes. Questions on the Yamnaya and Pre-Yamnaya locations of the language community that ultimately gave rise to the Indo-European language family are heavily dependent on linguistic reconstruction of the subsistence of Proto-Indo-European speakers. A central question, therefore, is how important the role of agriculture was among the speakers of this protolanguage. In this study, we perform a qualitative etymological analysis of all previously postulated Proto-Indo-European terminology related to cereal cultivation and cereal processing. On the basis of the evolution of the subsistence strategies of consecutive stages of the protolanguage, we find that one or perhaps two cereal terms can be reconstructed for the basal Indo-European stage, also known as Indo-Anatolian, but that core Indo-European, here also including Tocharian, acquired a more elaborate set of terms. Thus, we linguistically document an important economic shift from a mostly non-agricultural to a mixed agro-pastoral economy between the basal and core Indo-European speech communities. It follows that the early, eastern Yamnaya of the Don-Volga steppe, with its lack of evidence for agricultural practices, does not offer a perfect archaeological proxy for the core Indo-European language community and that this stage of the language family more likely reflects a mixed subsistence as proposed for western Yamnaya groups around or to the west of the Dnieper River.

Agriculture · Archaeology · Biological dispersal · Geography · Homeland · Indo-European languages · Linguistics · Political science · Population · Sanskrit · Sociology · Steppe · Subsistence agriculture · Terminology · Demography · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Linguistics and Cultural Studies · Linguistics and language evolution

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