The Origin of the Baltic and Vedic Languages PDF Download

Author: Janis Paliepa
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1456729012
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
The following commentaries regard the edition of Latvian Dainas and Vedic Hymns, published in Latvian. This monograph presents a broadened scope and discussion of Baltic and Vedic languages

Author: Felice Vinci
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594776458
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
Compelling evidence that the events of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey took place in the Baltic and not the Mediterranean • Reveals how a climate change forced the migration of a people and their myth to ancient Greece • Identifies the true geographic sites of Troy and Ithaca in the Baltic Sea and Calypso's Isle in the North Atlantic Ocean For years scholars have debated the incongruities in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, given that his descriptions are at odds with the geography of the areas he purportedly describes. Inspired by Plutarch's remark that Calypso's Isle was only five days sailing from Britain, Felice Vinci convincingly argues that Homer's epic tales originated not in the Mediterranean, but in the northern Baltic Sea. Using meticulous geographical analysis, Vinci shows that many Homeric places, such as Troy and Ithaca, can still be identified in the geographic landscape of the Baltic. He explains how the dense, foggy weather described by Ulysses befits northern not Mediterranean climes, and how battles lasting through the night would easily have been possible in the long days of the Baltic summer. Vinci's meteorological analysis reveals how a decline of the "climatic optimum" caused the blond seafarers to migrate south to warmer climates, where they rebuilt their original world in the Mediterranean. Through many generations the memory of the heroic age and the feats performed by their ancestors in their lost homeland was preserved and handed down to the following ages, only later to be codified by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Felice Vinci offers a key to open many doors that allow us to consider the age-old question of the Indo-European diaspora and the origin of the Greek civilization from a new perspective.

Author: David W. Anthony
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400831105
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language lifts the veil that has long shrouded these original Indo-European speakers, and reveals how their domestication of horses and use of the wheel spread language and transformed civilization. Linking prehistoric archaeological remains with the development of language, David Anthony identifies the prehistoric peoples of central Eurasia's steppe grasslands as the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European, and shows how their innovative use of the ox wagon, horseback riding, and the warrior's chariot turned the Eurasian steppes into a thriving transcontinental corridor of communication, commerce, and cultural exchange. He explains how they spread their traditions and gave rise to important advances in copper mining, warfare, and patron-client political institutions, thereby ushering in an era of vibrant social change. Anthony also describes his fascinating discovery of how the wear from bits on ancient horse teeth reveals the origins of horseback riding. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries--the source of the Indo-European languages and English--and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past.

Author: M. L. West
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191565407
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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Book Description
The Indo-Europeans, speakers of the prehistoric parent language from which most European and some Asiatic languages are descended, most probably lived on the Eurasian steppes some five or six thousand years ago. Martin West investigates their traditional mythologies, religions, and poetries, and points to elements of common heritage. In The East Face of Helicon (1997), West showed the extent to which Homeric and other early Greek poetry was influenced by Near Eastern traditions, mainly non-Indo-European. His new book presents a foil to that work by identifying elements of more ancient, Indo-European heritage in the Greek material. Topics covered include the status of poets and poetry in Indo-European societies; metre, style, and diction; gods and other supernatural beings, from Father Sky and Mother Earth to the Sun-god and his beautiful daughter, the Thunder-god and other elemental deities, and earthly orders such as Nymphs and Elves; the forms of hymns, prayers, and incantations; conceptions about the world, its origin, mankind, death, and fate; the ideology of fame and of immortalization through poetry; the typology of the king and the hero; the hero as warrior, and the conventions of battle narrative.

Author: Corinne Ondine Pache
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108663621
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 974

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Book Description
From its ancient incarnation as a song to recent translations in modern languages, Homeric epic remains an abiding source of inspiration for both scholars and artists that transcends temporal and linguistic boundaries. The Cambridge Guide to Homer examines the influence and meaning of Homeric poetry from its earliest form as ancient Greek song to its current status in world literature, presenting the information in a synthetic manner that allows the reader to gain an understanding of the different strands of Homeric studies. The volume is structured around three main themes: Homeric Song and Text; the Homeric World, and Homer in the World. Each section starts with a series of 'macropedia' essays arranged thematically that are accompanied by shorter complementary 'micropedia' articles. The Cambridge Guide to Homer thus traces the many routes taken by Homeric epic in the ancient world and its continuing relevance in different periods and cultures.

Author: Frederik Herman Henri Kortlandt
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9042021772
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
This volume offers a discussion of the phonological and morphological development of Old Irish and its Indo-European origins. The emphasis is on the relative chronology of sound changes and on the development of the verbal system. Special attention is devoted to the origin of absolute and relative verb forms, to the rise of the mutations, to the role of thematic and athematic inflexion types in the formation of present classes, preterits, subjunctives and futures, and to the development of deponents and passive forms. Other topics include infixed and suffixed pronouns, palatalization of consonants and labialization of vowels, and the role of Continental Celtic in the reconstruction of Proto-Celtic. The final chapter provides a detailed analysis of the Latin and other Italic data which are essential to a reconstruction of Proto-Italo-Celtic. The appendix contains a full reconstruction of the Old Irish verbal paradigms, which renders the subject more easily accessible to a wider audience. The book is of interest to Celticists, Latinists, Indo-Europeanists and other historical linguists.

Author: Thomas Olander
Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press
ISBN: 8763540436
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description

Ablaut, the grammatically conditioned vowel alternations found in e.g. English sing vs. sang vs. sung, is one of the most characteristic features of the Indo-European languages. The different ablaut grades seem to be related to the position of the accent in Proto-Indo-European. A good understanding of the relationship between accent and ablaut in Proto-Indo-European requires thorough analyses of the role played by the two phenomena in the Indo-European daughter languages.

The aim of the volume is to present the state of the art in current work on accent and ablaut in Proto-Indo-European and its daughter languages. The contributors analyze the interplay between accent and ablaut with attention both to theoretical aspects and to the specific linguistic material. Presenting up-to-date overviews of the models developed by various schools of thought, the contributors discuss a wide array of empirical as well as methodological problems, thus opening up vistas for further research.

Author: Rana Nayar
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000963616
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
This volume forms a part of the Critical Discourses in South Asia series which deals with schools, movements and discursive practices in major South Asian languages. It offers crucial insights into the making of the Punjabi language and literature, and its critical tradition across a century. The book brings together English translation of major writings of influential figures dealing with literary criticism and theory, aesthetic and performative traditions and re-interpretations of primary concepts and categories in Punjabi. It presents 30 key texts in literary and cultural studies from Punjab from the beginning of development of Punjabi language to its present form, with most of them translated for the first time into English. These seminal essays cover interconnections with socio-historical events in the medieval, colonial and post-independence period in Punjab. They discuss themes such as spiritual and aesthetic visions, poetic and literary forms, modernism, progressivism, feminism, Dalit literature, power structures and social struggles, ideological values, cultural renovations, and humanism. Comprehensive and authoritative, this volume offers an overview of the history of critical thought in Punjabi literature in South Asia. It will be essential for scholars and researchers of Punjabi language and literature, literary criticism, literary theory, comparative literature, Indian literature, cultural studies, art and aesthetics, performance studies, history, sociology, regional studies and South Asian studies. It will also interest the Punjabi-speaking diaspora and those working on the intellectual history of Punjab and conservation of languages and culture.

Author: William Walker Chambers
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317918525
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
This simple introduction to the history of the German language seeks to provide students who have some knowledge of modern German, but no knowledge either of its development or of linguistic theories, with a short account of the essential factors – chronological, geographical and linguistic – and their interrelation. The material is arranged in three parts. The first traces the history of the German language from its origins in Indo-European through the pre-documentary Germanic period and the Middle Ages to the present day. In the second part the development of the German vocabulary is described, including word formation, borrowing, and change in meaning; and the book concludes with a section on changes in sounds, grammatical forms, and syntax. Emphasis is placed on the development of the standard literary language in its historical and social context, while such topics as dialects and the relationship of German to other Germanic and European languages are treated very briefly as the need arises. The inclusion of maps, some specimen passages of German its early stages, suggestions for further reading after each chapter, and an extensive classified bibliography also contribute to making this a useful introduction to the subject and a reliable foundation for more advanced work.

Author: Mukhtar Ahmed
Publisher: Amazon
ISBN: 149970982X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
This book is the fifth and the last volume of a much larger project, Ancient Pakistan - An Archaelogical History. which deals with the prehistory of Pakistan from the Stone Age to the end of the Indus Civilization. This volume deals with the decay and demise of the Indus Civilization and its devolution into post-Harappan regional cultures under the impact of the intruding pastoral nomads from the West, the Indo-Aryans being one of them. A comprehensive bibliography is provided for those who want to dig deeper into the subject.