Exploring the Origins of Language: Indo-European & Uralic Connection 📜

Welcome to part two of my video series on the Indo-Uralic hypothesis. It looks like there could well be a third installment as I haven’t had a chance to mention the potential impact of the Caucasian languages on Indo-European and how that plays with the Indo-Uralic hypothesis. Plus, I could definitely go more into some of the lexical similarities.

A few notes:
🔍Concerning the correspondences between the interrogative systems of Indo-European and Uralic, it’s not to say that the correspondences aren’t there, just that those correspondences extend into a wider complex of possibly related language families. It hints at a genetic relationship between Indo-European and Uralic but not necessarily that they formed their own branch as suggested in the introduction of the book ‘Precursors of Proto-Indo-European.’

🌍It's hard when talking about the Indo-Uralic hypothesis not to talk about wider macrofamily theories. These theories seem to have been a huge time sink for many great researchers (and increasingly even myself). Some question whether it is useful or worthwhile to pursue such investigations considering the time depth involved. I am not necessarily one of those people, but I do think caution is required. As many researchers have said, it is unlikely that Proto-Indo-European was a language isolate.

🗣️Regarding phonology, a number of researchers have suggested the involvement of plosives in early PIE – these are potentially important in the context of the Indo-Uralic hypothesis as it could explain the stark difference in phonological systems. Plus, there are examples in other languages of the world of implosives becoming nasals.

🎥I hope you enjoy the video! Let me know your thoughts on part two in the comments. And would you like to see a video on one of the macrofamilies? A Nostratic specific video perhaps?

📖Selected Sources:
✨Kloekhorst, A., & Pronk, Peyrot, T., Zhivlov, M.,Bauhaus,S.H., Kümmel, M.
J., Kroonen, G., (2019). "Chapter 1 Introduction: Reconstructing Proto-Indo-Anatolian and Proto-Indo-Uralic". In The Precursors of Proto-Indo-European. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.

Georg, S., & Vovin, A. (2004). From Mass Comparison to Mess Comparison: Greenberg’s Indo-European and its Closest Relatives. Diachronica, 20(2), 379-402.

Kortlandt, F. (01 Jan. 2010). Studies in Germanic, Indo-European and Indo-Uralic. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill

Greenberg, J. H. (2000). Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family. Volume 1, Grammar. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

✨Fortescue, M. (1998). Language relations across Bering Strait: Reappraising the archaeological and linguistic evidence. London-New York: Cassell.

Beekes, R. S. P. (2011). Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Revised and corrected by M. de Vaan. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

✨Holopainen, S. (2020). Fresh views on the early history of Indo-European and its relation to Uralic [Book review]. Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, 65, 155-171.

Pooth, R., Kerkhof, P. A., Kulikov, L., & Barđdal, J. (2019). The origin of non-canonical case marking of subjects in Proto-Indo-European. Indogermanische Forschungen, 124, 245–263.

Janhunen, J. (1981a). On the structure of Proto-Uralic. Finnisch-ugrische Forschungen, 44, 23–42. Helsinki: Société finno-ougrienne.

Weiss, M. (2009). The Cao Bang theory. Presentation given at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik.

✨Kümmel, M. J. (2012). Typology and reconstruction: The consonants and vowels of Proto-Indo-European. Copenhagen

Sammallahti, P. (1988). "Historical Phonology of the Uralic Languages: With Special Reference to Samoyed, Ugric, and Permic". In The Uralic Languages. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.

Blažek, (2005). Indo-Iranian elements in Fenno-Ugric mythological lexicon. Indogermanische Forschungen, 110(1), 162-185.

Marcantonio, A. (2014). Uralic vs Indo-European contacts: borrowing vs local emergence vs chance resemblances. Eesti Ja Soome-Ugri Keeleteaduse Ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics, 5(2), 29–50"
#protoindoeuropean #IndoUralic #Linguistics #LanguageFamilies #ProtoIndoEuropean #UralicLanguages #MacrofamilyTheories #Phonology #LanguageHistory #Nostratic #ComparativeLinguistics #Etymology #CulturalLinguistics