Prehistorical Language Despite the common tendency to link the study of language with writing, and to study language only in its relation to how it changed through writing, the study of prehistoric languages and those with no written history is both an interesting and a useful field.
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While much of the information that is currently known about prehistoric languages is conjecture based off of reconstructed alphabets and the examination of language families, there is still much that can be learned from these languages. Prehistoric language, even if largely speculation, provides a glimpse back in time which can only otherwise be accessed through archaeology. For example, the tracing of these prehistoric languages has shown that many languages found in northern India are part of the Indo-European family, meaning that they descended from the same language as many current European languages from what linguists call the Proto-Indo-European language, or PIE. This provides an interesting insight into the history of India, as it explains the arrival of texts such as the Veda, which was brought by the Aryan invaders who spoke PIE. This also explains why the Aryans were able to so effectively conquer large parts of India, as there is evidence of Proto-Indo-European speakers having iron tools and weapons as well as riding chariots and taming horses, which is why large swathes of land were conquered so efficiently.
At the same time this reconstruction allows for linguists track language patterns across the globe, due to being able to track how languages shifted as people migrated out of Africa. This can be seen in the observation that PIE speakers were not the first speakers to migrate to Europe, as evidenced by the existence of the Basque language, which linguists speculate was related to the societies which were in place before the first PIE speakers migrated to the area. This allows for an explanation as to why the Basque language is so separate from their neighbors, as well as allowing for linguists to gain an insight into this old language family, as they now know they can study the Basque language. The study of prehistoric languages allows for another insight into a period of human history which can only otherwise be accessed through archaeology, and it allows for a more cultural focus, providing information otherwise impossible to find about our early history. |