"The First Indo-Europeans" from Lilly to Dory

Hello, sister mine!

We've had a few conversations lately concerning the Indo-Europeans, so I'd like to share some of the things we've been discussing in class about them that you might find interesting.

But first, some overview for our readers who may not be familiar with the subject matter:

Almost all the modern European languages can be linked together linguistically, first into categorical branches, and then to a single historical common language, known as Proto-Indo-European.  Here's a diagram posted by Dory in one of our earlier posts (click for the post and a more in-depth description) that shows these connections:

It's called "Proto-Indo-European" because it's been reconstructed, based on ways of tracing the history of words (known as etymology) to find words in other languages which share a common historical root.  Because of this type of analysis, we know it has to have existed, but until recently relatively little was known about the people who actually spoke it.  However, you can tell quite a bit about a culture from its language!

First, we know through the archaeological record that the Indo-European culture originated in what is now Ukraine.  This is supported linguistically, as the modern Ukrainian language is the most similar to the reconstructed Indo-European language as compared to the other branches.

Here is where it starts getting cool, and why I love Anthro-linguistics...

We know the Indo-Euros were a pastoralist society, meaning their sustenance was based around herding some kind of animal (like sheep, cattle, goats, etc).  Typically, this "type," if you will, of culture will fall into certain patterns as far as its societal organization and spiritual beliefs.  In this case, the hierarchy follows thus: the shepherd watches over the flock as the father watches over his family (they tend to be male-dominated) as the leader watches over his tribe as a father-like deity watches over his people.  This is seen in many modern-day societies, and indeed can be spotted in the organization of Western culture and the terminology of modern Christianity (which stems from Judaism, which originated within a pastoralist group); "the good shepherd;" "sacrificial lamb;" "guide your flock;" etc.  The Indo-Euros are thought to have worshiped a god called "Sky Father," or "Diaus Pater" in it's reconstructed form, which is the root of words like "Dios" (Spanish), "Zues" (Greek), "Deu" (French), and "Dyw" (Cornish).

Now, the Indo-Euros weren't just ANY pastoralists.....

They were horse lords.

And, they had iron weapons before anyone else, making it easy for them to go around conquering all of their agrarian neighbors which is how their culture, language, and belief system spread across Europe so fast.  The blending of Indo-European and the languages of the groups they conquered is probably what kicked off the separate dialects that later evolved into the different language branches.

So, there is a certain mysterious culture that has been in Europe as long as anybody and whose language is very mysteriously indeed NOT a descendant of Proto-Indo-Euro.  They are the Basque.

My thoughts concerning this are largely centered on the idea that perhaps the ancient Basque were isolated enough to escape the notice of the conquering Indo-Euros, and so were able to keep their language where others were not.  What I'm wondering is, how did the ancient Basque live?  Were they agrarian, or were they perhaps nomadic?  This would link them to another European group who also speaks an independent language and managed to escape Indo-Euro influence: the Gypsies.

So, what are your thoughts?  Do you know something about the Basque or Gypsy cultures that would support this hypothesis, or am I completely off?

Love, Lilly