Pre-Indo-European languages

The term pre-Indo-European languages relates to several (not necessarily related) non-classified languages that existed in prehistoric Europe and South Asia before the arrival of bearers of Indo-European languages.

Some of them are attested only as linguistic substrates in Indo-European languages; however, some other (like Etruscan, Minoan, Iberian etc.) are also attested with inscriptions, most of them dating back to the Bronze Age.

The only surviving pre-Indo-European language so far is the Basque language.

Asia

• Substrate in Vedic Sanskrit
  • Harappan language
• Vedda language (a dialect of Sinhalese containing pre-Sinhalese substrate lexicon)
• Hurro-Urartian languages and Hattic language (substrates in Anatolian)

Europe

• Finno-Ugric languages
• Old European hydronymy
• Pre-Indoeuropean
  • Basque language
• Pre-Greek substrate
  • Pelasgian
  • Eteocretan (see also Minoan language, Linear A, Cretan hieroglyphs)
  • Eteocypriot (see also Cypro-Minoan script)
• Pre-Germanic
  • Germanic substrate hypothesis
• Pre-Celtic or "para-Celtic"
  • Continental Pre-Celtic:
    • Ligurian language
  • Pre-Celtic of the British Isles, see Celtic settlement of Great Britain and Ireland
    • Goidelic substrate hypothesis
    • Pictish language (sometimes classified as Celtic)
• Tyrrhenian languages including at least:
  • Lemnian language
  • Etruscan language
  • Raetic language
• Paleohispanic languages
  • Iberian language
  • Tartessian language
• Non-classified pre-Roman languages of Italy (except for those affiliated with the Tyrrhenian):
  • Camunic language
  • Elymian language
  • North Picene language
  • Paleosardic language (aka Paleosardinian, Protosardic, Nuraghic language)
  • Sicanian language
  • Sicel language (probably Indo-European)

Hypotheses

• Germanic substrate hypothesis
• Vasconic languages
  • Vasconic substratum hypothesis
  • Atlantic (Semitic) languages

See also

• Pre-Indo-European (disambiguation)
• Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni
• Lusitanian language and Venetic language - non-classified extinct Indo-European languages
• Saami languages (containing pre-Finno-Ugric substrate)

Literature

Archaeology and culture

• Anthony, David with Jennifer Y. Chi (eds., 2009). The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000-3500 BC.
• Bogucki, Peter I. and Pam J. Crabtree (eds. 2004). Ancient Europe 8000 BC--1000 AD: An Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
• Gimbutas, Marija (1973). Old Europe c. 7000-3500 B.C.: the earliest European civilization before the infiltration of the Indo-European peoples. The Journal of Indo-European Studies 1/1-2. 1-20.
• Tilley, Christopher (1996). An Ethnography of the Neolithic. Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern Scandinavia. Cambridge University Press.

Linguistic reconstructions

• Bammesberger, Alfred and Theo Vennemann (eds., 2003). Languages in Prehistoric Europe. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.
• Blench, Roger and Matthew Spriggs (eds. 1). Archaeology and Language. Vol. I. Theoretical and Methodological Orientations.
• Dolukhanov, Pavel M. (2003) Archaeology and Languages in Prehistoric Northern Eurasia // Japan Review, 15:175-186. http://shinku.nichibun.ac.jp/jpub/pdf/jr/IJ1507.pdf
• Gimbutas, Marija (1989). The Language of the Goddess
• Greppin, John and T.L.Markey (eds., 1990). When Worlds Collide: The Indo-Europeans and the Pre-Indo-Europeans, Ann Arbor.
• Lehmann, Winfred P. Pre-Indo-European. Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man. 2002. ISBN 0-941694-82-8.
• Lieberman, Mark. The Linguistic Diversiry of Aboriginal Europe // Language Log. January 6, 2009. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=980
• Mailhammer, Robert (2010). Diversity vs. Uniformity. Europe before the Arrival of Indo-European Languages. http://www.lrz.de/~mailhammer/htdocs/pdf/SWE_paper-MTP_draft.pdf // to appear in: Mailhammer, Robert and Theo Vennemann. Linguistic Roots of Europe. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
• Pre-Indo-European // Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe. Edited by: Glanville Price. 2000. eISBN 9780631220398.
• Vennemann, Theo. Languages in Prehistoric Europe north of the Alps. http://www.scribd.com/doc/8670/Languages-in-prehistoric-Europe-north-of-the-Alps
• Vennemann, Theo (2008). Linguistic reconstruction in the context of European prehistory. Transactions of the Philological Society. Volume 92, Issue 2, pages 215–284, November 1994
• Woodard, Roger D. (ed., 2008) Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press.
• Woodard, Roger D. (2008) Ancient Languages of Europe. Cambridge University Press.

External links

• Template:Fr Reconstructed migration of language families and archaeological cultures in Europe during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic
• www.oocities.com/linguaeimperii/index_en.html