Re: Pre-IE languages in Europe

Tom Wier wrote:
>
> Sam Bryant wrote:
>
> > Andrew Smith wrote:
> > >For a start the Indo-Europeans would not have been able to spread so
> > >widely without their horse-drawn chariots. Perhaps they only survived in
> > >places where they had the advantage without horses (Asia minor, Greece,
> > >Iran) and the rest of Eurasia speaks non-IE.
> > Speaking of which, could anybody name any reference on the languages spoken in europe
> > prior to Indo-european invasions (and their associated peoples)? (IIRC,
> > basque is supposed to be a remnant of one; and the non-IE words in greek and
> > germanic might be from others.)
>
> As far as I know, there's very little direct evidence about any of the
> languages that were spoken then.  Some have claimed that Basque
> is the last remaining language spoken by the Neanderthals, or those
> people who painted the caves in Lascaux and Altamira. Of course,
> not knowing any other languages from that area, that's hard if not impossible
> to prove.
>
> I believe Pictish, a language spoken in what is now Scotland, is thought to be
> preindoeuropean, but IIRC, it died out sometime during late antiquity,
> with only a handful of carvings and the like as direct empirical evidence
> for any posited relationships with other languages.
>
> Does anyone know anything more detailed than this?
>
There is also Etruscan and a scattering of inscriptions across the
Balkans, Asia Minor, and Mediterranean Islands in a variety of lgs.
I was quite interested in these at one time although I never did
any work with them.  I know the U. of Chicago's Regenstein library
had dozens of books on the subject so the references exist.  Caveat,
here more than most I would be very careful about accepting the
quality of these works.  It seems about once a decade or so, someone
'proves' that Basque is related to lg X or publishes the definitive
analysis of Etruscan.  Most such work goes on the proverbial rubbish
heap of linguistic history.

Sorry I can't be of more help.
--
Brad Coon
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