Laura Spinney

Right. So if you take, for example, the Rig Veda, which is the most ancient Indian text, and the Epics of Homer in Greece, you see not just the same sort of story motifs, but also the stories told in the same poetic formulae and often the same words.

Right. So if you take, for example, the Rig Veda, which is the most ancient Indian text, and the Epics of Homer in Greece, you see not just the same sort of story motifs, but also the stories told in the same poetic formulae and often the same words.

Yes. First of all, and famously, there's Basque in the Basque country between France and Spain. That is currently considered to be much older than the Indo-European languages. So the idea is that it's a relic of the languages that were bought about 8,000 years ago rather than about 5,000 years ago, which is when we think the Indo-European languages came.

Yes. First of all, and famously, there's Basque in the Basque country between France and Spain. That is currently considered to be much older than the Indo-European languages. So the idea is that it's a relic of the languages that were bought about 8,000 years ago rather than about 5,000 years ago, which is when we think the Indo-European languages came.

Yes. First of all, and famously, there's Basque in the Basque country between France and Spain. That is currently considered to be much older than the Indo-European languages. So the idea is that it's a relic of the languages that were bought about 8,000 years ago rather than about 5,000 years ago, which is when we think the Indo-European languages came.

And it was probably brought by, originally by the farmers who expanded out of Anatolia and the Fertile Crescent with the Neolithic revolution. after about 8,000 years ago, came into Europe. And Basque is spoken still today in that sort of mountain kingdom of the Pyrenees between France and Spain.

And it was probably brought by, originally by the farmers who expanded out of Anatolia and the Fertile Crescent with the Neolithic revolution. after about 8,000 years ago, came into Europe. And Basque is spoken still today in that sort of mountain kingdom of the Pyrenees between France and Spain.

And it was probably brought by, originally by the farmers who expanded out of Anatolia and the Fertile Crescent with the Neolithic revolution. after about 8,000 years ago, came into Europe. And Basque is spoken still today in that sort of mountain kingdom of the Pyrenees between France and Spain.

And that geography and that topography is probably really part of the reason why it's managed to survive. But that's not the only one. There's also, for example, the Finnic languages, Finnish and Estonian, which belong to the Uralic language family, as does Hungarian, though in a different branch, and the Sami languages of the far north of the Arctic Circle, traditionally of reindeer herders.

And that geography and that topography is probably really part of the reason why it's managed to survive. But that's not the only one. There's also, for example, the Finnic languages, Finnish and Estonian, which belong to the Uralic language family, as does Hungarian, though in a different branch, and the Sami languages of the far north of the Arctic Circle, traditionally of reindeer herders.

And that geography and that topography is probably really part of the reason why it's managed to survive. But that's not the only one. There's also, for example, the Finnic languages, Finnish and Estonian, which belong to the Uralic language family, as does Hungarian, though in a different branch, and the Sami languages of the far north of the Arctic Circle, traditionally of reindeer herders.

Those are Uralic languages. But if you were to go back, say, to 500 BC, let's say 2,500 years ago, you'd see a very different language landscape in Europe, and you'd see a much richer mix of Indo-European and Indo-European languages, just to say that the landscape has constantly evolved and is very different at different points in history and prehistory.

Those are Uralic languages. But if you were to go back, say, to 500 BC, let's say 2,500 years ago, you'd see a very different language landscape in Europe, and you'd see a much richer mix of Indo-European and Indo-European languages, just to say that the landscape has constantly evolved and is very different at different points in history and prehistory.

Those are Uralic languages. But if you were to go back, say, to 500 BC, let's say 2,500 years ago, you'd see a very different language landscape in Europe, and you'd see a much richer mix of Indo-European and Indo-European languages, just to say that the landscape has constantly evolved and is very different at different points in history and prehistory.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's definitely a simplification. Maybe I should start by saying that languages evolve all the time. They evolve by descent in In a sort of similar way to families in genetics, in that you can trace a descendant language back to its ancestor. You can see the similarities and how it's evolved over time.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's definitely a simplification. Maybe I should start by saying that languages evolve all the time. They evolve by descent in In a sort of similar way to families in genetics, in that you can trace a descendant language back to its ancestor. You can see the similarities and how it's evolved over time.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's definitely a simplification. Maybe I should start by saying that languages evolve all the time. They evolve by descent in In a sort of similar way to families in genetics, in that you can trace a descendant language back to its ancestor. You can see the similarities and how it's evolved over time.

There are certain so-called sound laws which sort of control, govern that evolutionary process. But they also change, unlike people, unlike biology and genes. They change by horizontal borrowing. So languages, for example, loan words to each other all the time, and they also loan sounds and grammatical structures and all sorts of other aspects of language.

There are certain so-called sound laws which sort of control, govern that evolutionary process. But they also change, unlike people, unlike biology and genes. They change by horizontal borrowing. So languages, for example, loan words to each other all the time, and they also loan sounds and grammatical structures and all sorts of other aspects of language.

There are certain so-called sound laws which sort of control, govern that evolutionary process. But they also change, unlike people, unlike biology and genes. They change by horizontal borrowing. So languages, for example, loan words to each other all the time, and they also loan sounds and grammatical structures and all sorts of other aspects of language.