Re: Neanderthal and PIE
| From: | Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, October 11, 2008, 16:12 |
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Hallo!
On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:18:53 +0100, Falcata Lusa wrote:
> I'm starting a new project envolving neanderthal conculture and conlang.
>
> After googling for geographical distribuition of neanderthal archeological
> sites, I was a bit surprised to see that it covers an area similar to, if
> smaller than, the geographical distribuition of Proto Indo European (PIE).
>
> Is there a relation between the two?
>
> Could a neanderthal language be the root of PIE?
I think we are dealing with an entirely meaningless coincidence
here. PIE probably was spoken about 6000 years ago; estimates
of an earlier age can be ruled out (IMHO) because the vocabulary
of PIE as it can be reconstructed reveals that the "Proto-Indo-
Europeans" practiced agriculture, used wheeled vehicles and knew
at least the metals copper, silver and gold. As Jim Henry has
already pointed out, Neanderthals belong to a much earlier time.
Also, the Neanderthals died out and were not the ancestors of
any humans living today, and I think there is some evidence that
the Neanderthals were not fully sapient and probably did not
speak a language of the same kind as the languages known to us.
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