Re: another language reconstruction question

Florian Rivoal scripsit:

> How can the case of english in USA, or latin in western europe
> be similar to PIE? Those two are conveyed by One single civilisation or
> empire. the whole area is influence by one culture. Was there such a
> Proto-indo-european empire reigning over an area as vast as the whole
> indo european area?
No.  More likely, the PIE-speakers had high technology of some sort
(perhaps the horse and war chariot, perhaps bronze metallurgy) that
allowed them to dominate their neighbors and spread out.  There surely
never was a vast Eurasian empire: rather, they moved outward from the
point of origin, conquering as they went -- but *not* staying in touch
with their relatives who went in other directions.  Eventually, a
huge area was IE-speaking even though it was not and never had been
politically unified.  We can actually trace certain elements --
specifically the so-called "noxal surrender", whereby a wrong committed
by a slave/child/animal can be recompensed by the owner by turning over
the subordinate to the victim -- in several different IE legal traditions,
including Celtic, Roman, Greek, and Hindu.

> I think it is hard to believe without a writing
> system or a more or less advanced technology, which is important for
> maintaining coherence on such a big area for a long time.
Coherence wasn't necessary: as the PIE-speakers separated, their language
broke up too.

> If the langage did not have the support of such a big civilisation how
> could it manage to replace allmost everything around?
Through a series of individual competitions, whereby the superior
technology of the PIE (or IE) speakers permitted them to attain
cultural dominance.  It obviously didn't happen everywhere, as the
cases of Basque and Etruscan show; but it did happen in a very large
number of places.

> And it seems that if
> it is just spreading around, without any control, by the time it reaches
> areas quite distant from the original location, there could hardly be
> anything left from the original language.
Language features are remarkably well conserved in such circumstances.

--
Deshil Holles eamus.  Deshil Holles eamus.  Deshil Holles eamus.
Send us, bright one, light one, Horhorn, quickening, and wombfruit. (3x)
Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!  Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!  Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!
  -- Joyce, _Ulysses_, "Oxen of the Sun"       jcowan@reutershealth.com

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