Polish and the Origin of European Languages
Polish and the Origin of European Languages
Have you ever wondered where does your language come from? Why do we speak so many different languages in Europe? Why are European languages so similar to one another, but at the same time Why are others too different from the rest? And most importantly, who were the first ones to start speaking? Well, the answers to these questions were already solved in the eighteenth century by the British linguist and researcher William Jones, who during a visit to India noticed similarities between Sanskrit, Latin, Greek and other European languages such as the Celtic varieties spoken in Great Britain and Ireland. He collected his research in the edited volume The Sanskrit Language, in which he developed a comparative analysis that led him to find a common root in almost all European languages. This is how the term Indo-European was born, which designates a primitive language that was the origin of modern languages that goes from India to Iceland.
The studies that preceded Jones' theory confirmed the fact that a language called Proto-Indo-European is the direct ancestor of European languages, and with this discovery came several discussions about which is its birthplace. Despite what the Western Eurocentrist perspectives that rule the study of history, linguistics and politics might make us think, the origin of European languages is placed in the East of Europe rather than in Western primitive societies. According to anthropological records, the origins of Indo-European go back to the seventh millennium B.C. when “a novel agricultural economy began to spread across Europe, based on the cultivation of wheat and barley and the herding of sheep and goats” (Renfrew 110). This date places us in the Neolithic when the Homo Sapiens had left behind the nomad life to settle in organized groups subsisting through a self-reliant economic model based on agriculture and farming. The linguists that preceded William Jones coincided with the theory that the first group of humans that started speaking Proto-Indo-European settled in the Anatolian Steppe in Turkey. This theory was later confirmed by contemporary researchers who in the 80s found archaeological evidence of these settlements. After these findings, they also declared that Proto-Indo-European was not a language characteristic of a static community. Instead, further research in closer areas evidenced the movement and contact of the Anatolians with other communities. This contact was based on commercial exchanges and the transmission of technological advances from one community to another. For this reason, researchers concluded that “the steppe hypothesis associates IE language spread with the diffusion of cultural innovations relating to pastoralism, including horse domestication, wheeled vehicles, and the weaving of wool from woolly” (Chang et al 195). Therefore, the origins of Proto-Indo-European are attached to the transmission of technology and a simultaneous linguistic exchange.
This theory leads us to the connection between Polish
and the birth of European languages. In the early 1980s, linguists established that
the area of transmission of Proto-Indo-European occurred in the regions that
now correspond to Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and part of
Russia. These communities known as the Proto-Slavs created their own culture
that later spread to the north of Ukraine and Poland. For this reason, the
cultures and languages of these regions share characteristics and traditions. With
the movement of Proto-Indo-Europeans through the different regions the language
changed, becoming what is known as Proto-Slavic, later evolving into Old
Polish.
But if the first ones to speak Proto-Indo-European were settled in Anatolia, why is Polish connected to the origin of European languages? As it has been explained, the movement of these groups led them to Poland, an area that could be considered the bridge between eastern and central Europe. Before Old Polish was born as a former language, the people from this region spoke Proto-Indo-European which by having contact with other communities became Proto-Slavic. As their ancestors, their curiosity made them move towards the West. Hence, the original Proto-Indo-European communities that ended in Poland moved towards the West and the language evolved into different branches finally giving birth to modern languages as we know them today.
This movement led to the division of Proto-Indo-European into two branches of evolution. On the one hand, the branch that corresponds to Asia was called Satem, characterized by the wide representation of sounds corresponding to the letter <s>. On the other hand, it evolved into the branch Centum which designates all the languages spoken in Europe. The branch Centum is characterized by the wide presence of the sound /k/ represented by letters <k>, <c> and also present in letter <x> symbolizing sound <ks>. Even if Proto-Indo-European was never written and the information we have about it is based on the reconstruction of sounds through an exhaustive comparative analysis, linguists could establish a family tree between all European languages that connect them through Proto-Indo-European as a common ancestor.
Thus, although Polish is not similar to other languages spoken in Western Europe, its phonology evidences that this area was originally a settlement of Indo-European people. As a Centum language, Polish has /k/ as a representative sound. This characteristic can be easily observed in Polish because /k/ is a phoneme widely present in the language. Although in Medieval texts /k/ was represented with <c> due to the inclusion of the Latin alphabet, this sound was widely present in many words. In time, the letter <k> returned to be the graphical representation of this sound and now is not only in native words but also added to many foreign words substituting <q> and <x>. Polish phonology also evidences this ancestry through its rhythm. Contrary to the rest of the Centum languages such as Spanish which is a very melodic language, Polish has a strong and marked rhythm when it is pronounced. This strong pronunciation of Polish words makes it closer to the non-melodic Proto-Indo-European root. Hence, it could be stated that Polish phonology has preserved the original sounds of this original language, being the modern receptacle of the origin of European languages.
Representation of /k/ by <c>
To conclude, considering that Poland was at the epicentre of the geographical movements between Indo-European communities and the presence of Proto-Indo-European phonological ancestry in the language, Polish should be considered in the study of European linguistic origins. It is the living image of a past that died and its sounds represent the importance that should be given to Eastern Europe to the origins of a continent that is very rich in cultures. For this reason, it could also be argued why many beliefs and myths are similar between Polish and Western cultures such as Spanish, but that is a discussion for another moment.
Sara
Works Cited
Chang, Will, et al. “Ancestry-Constrained
Phylogenetic Analysis Supports the Indo-European Steppe Hypothesis.” Language,
vol. 91, n. 1, 2015, pp. 194-244. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24672224
Renfrew, Colin. “The Origins of
Indo-European Languages.” Scientific American, vol. 261, n. 4, 1989, pp.
106-115. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/24987446
Other articles of interest
Friedrich, Paul. “Proto-Indo-European
Kinship.” Ethnology, vol. 5, n. 1, 1966, pp. 1-36. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3772899
"Sir William Jones: British orientalist and jurist." Britannica, 24 September 2023. https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Jones-British-orientalist-and-jurist
Vijūnas, Aurelijus. “The
Proto-Indo-European Sibilant */s/⁰.” Historische Sprachforschung, vol.
123, 2010, pp. 40-55. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41219143
