Slavic ethnogenesis by Mario Alinei
Thursday, 14. September 2006, 05:43:29
Interdisciplinary and linguistic evidence for Palaeolithic continuity of Indo-European, Uralic and Altaic populations in Eurasia, with an excursus on Slavic ethnogenesis
by Mario Alinei
Expanded version of a paper read at the Conference Ancient Settlers in Europe, Kobarid, 29-30 May
2003. – Forthcoming in “Quaderni di semantica”, 26.
1Introduction
This contribution is based on my recent work on the problem of the origins of Indo- European (= IE) languages (Alinei 1996, 1998, 2000ab, 2001, 2002) – and lately on Etruscan (Alinei 2003) –, and is divided in five parts: (A) the first outlines the three presently competing theories on the origins of IE languages; (B) the second summarizes the converging conclusions reached by different sciences on the problem of the origin
of language and languages in general; (C) the third surveys recent theories on the origins of non IE languages in Europe; (D) the fourth illustrates examples of how the IE linguistic record can be read in the light of the Paleolithic Continuity Theory, and in comparison with the two competing theories; (E) the fifth concerns the specific problem
of the Slavic ethnogenesis.
2The three main paradigms for the origins of Indo-European languages
At present, the international debate on the origins of IE languages and peoples
concentrates on three different theories: the traditional theory and two new, quite recent ones.
2.1Copper Age theory = warlike invasion by Proto-Indo-Europeans as pastoral nomads (kurgan) (Gimbutas, Mallory etc.)
As we know, until recently, the received doctrine for the origins of Indo-Europeans in Europe was centered upon the assumption of an Indo-European Invasion in the Copper Age (IV millennium b.C.), by horse-riding warrior pastoralists (fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Gimbutas’ invasion theory
The last and most authoritative version of this theory was the so called kurgan
theory, elaborated by the American-Lithuanian archaeologists Marija Gimbutas, and now defended by the American archaeologist James Mallory (Mallory 1989), according
to which the Proto-Indo-Europeans were the warrior pastoralists who built kurgan, that
is burial mounds, in the steppe area of Ukraine (e.g. Gimbutas 1970, 1973, 1977, 1980). From the steppe area, the Proto-IE kurgan people would have then first invaded Southern Eastern Europe, then, in the III millennium, after having evolved into the so called Battle Axe people (the black area on the map) would have brought IE languages
all over Europe, in a series of conquering waves (white arrows on the map)........
Slavic ethnogenesis by Mario Alinei.htm
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 26. December 2007, 00:16
I would like to wish you merry chrismass,
your article is very usefull for me, I thought about pre-IE language, because I can see in german, english, or italian a lot of slo(a)vic words and now you helped me understand that proto IE people in midd-east europe were protoIE->nowadays slavic people,
thank you,
Peter Vranek,
Bratislava
macedon # 26. December 2007, 00:41
http://my.opera.com/ancientmacedonia/blog/show.dml/1567460