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Repudiating the linguistic evidence
for the Aryan hypothesis
Angela MarcantonioUniversity of Rome La Sapienza
Presented at: A Symposium on Indo-European Linguistics
Wednesday, July 28th, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM
Salem State College, Central Campus, Building One, Room # 225
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Introduction
The Aryan Hypothesis
And our objective today
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The Indo-Aryan debate
Indo-Aryans were ...? ± Indigenous
± Migrants (from the Indo-European area)
Seems impossible to resolve the debate
Bryant 2009 ± There is nothing in Indian archaeology that supports
the assumed migration of peoples
± The entire issue is a derivative consequence of the
family tree presuppositions of historical linguistics ± Scholars have become exhausted with the polemical
and emotional element of the discussions
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What textbooks say
Sanskrit Greek Latin Gothic English
Bhár--mi Phér- Fer- Bair-a (I) bear
ásmi eimí sum im (I) am
ésti est est ist (he) is
pitár patér pater fadar father
tráyah treis trs rija three
Examples of word similaritiesMost similarities include Greek Sanskrit
Many also include Latin
Other languages also represented
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Cutting the Gordian knot
Received wisdom is that Sanskrit derivedfrom Indo-European
No evidence from archaeology, palaeo-anthropology or genetics
The only evidence is linguistic We will examine the linguistic theory
± it is based on mistaken evidence
± It fails Sir Isaac Newtons criterion for anacceptable scientific model - it is unfalsifiable
The time has arrived to challenge the Indo-European theory ± May cut the Gordian knot
± Allow space for alternative models for the originof Sanskrit
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The linguistic evidence (1)
Many claimed Indo-European words
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Widely cited example: Father
LANGUAGE WORD
Sanskrit janaka, Pitár-, taataH
Old Avestan (modern day Iran) Pta (later patar/pitar)
Greek PatrLatin Pater
Slavic, Albanian (missing)
Lithuanian (missing)
Old Irish Athir
Gothic (4th century) Atta (except once: O Father)
Old high German (9th century) Atto ~ Fater
Modern German VaterBible translation:
Latin or Greek ->
Germanic
One of the Sanskrit forms is similar to Greek
Greek influenced Latin (eg classical writers bilingual)
Latin then permeated Germanic area
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Geographical distribution of father
c
Indo-Greek states
Father
Bilingual
Greek -
Sanskrit
Matches the Indo-Greek states
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Conclusion on father
Claimed as evidence for the Indo-European theory
But an entirely different history is equally possible
± Indo-Greek states used Sanskrit and Greek as official
languages ± Policy of intermarriage
± Opportunity for the word to spread
± Then Latin modelled on Greek
± Then helped to spread via church influence (O Father hasstrong religious meaning)
The Indo-European inheritance explanation is not theonly possible one!
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More on word correspondences
Many more words are like father ± Greek and Sanskrit are the bedrock of the theory
About 1000 nouns (Pokorny 1959-1969) ±
But Ringe: evidential standards are lamentably lax 683 safely reconstructed IE verbs (Rix 1998)
± But 29% are evidenced in only one language or branch
± 34% are evidenced in only 2 languages or branches
±This indicates most claimed words are of local origin,not Indo-European
We will return to this topic ...
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The linguistic evidence (2)
Sound laws
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Introduction to sound laws
Exceptionless laws of sound change from IE into the
various languages ± Founding laws
1822: Grimms law
1876: Verners Law
± Today: many laws
Verners Stunning paper ± Roger Lass, 1997
Critical for uncovering language relations ± Hoeningswald, 1990
Sanskrit Greek Latin Gothic English
Bhár--mi Phér- Fer- Bair-a (I) Bear
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What does Verners Law say?
1822: Grimms Law
± Indo-European p, t, kp Germanic f, , h~
1870s: counter-evidence to Grimms Law published
± Verner thought he detected a systematic pattern ± Claimed to turn exceptions into apparent exceptions
1876: Verners Law
± Germanic f, , h~ p b, d ~ , g
± voiceless consonant from Grimms Law becomes voiced ± In medial position only
± Unless the corresponding consonant in the supposed IEancestor word is preceded by an accent
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Verners Law in action
First must reconstruct the IE accent
± Not reconstructable (IE languages differ too much)
± Verner says I must use Sanskrit (does not say why)
±
But Sanskrit has tones, not a stress accent Verner uses the tone that is transcribed like a stress accent!
Verners Law applied to father
± Sanskrit (assumed = IE) Pitár
± (by Grimms law) fiar
± (by Verners law) fidar n becomes d because
no Sanskrit accent before
These laws do not consider vowels
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Verners evidence (1) kinship terms
Meaning Sanskrit Verners
Germanic
pridiction
Attested
Gothic
Attested
Old High
German
Father pitár fadar Fadar
Brother bhrátar brar Brar
Mother-in-law var- swigar swigar
Father-in-
law
váura- swehur swehur
?
?
?
?If there is no
Sanskrit accent
beforehand ...
... Then the
Germanic consonant
becomes voiced
Verner
claimed a
perfect match
But what
about
these?
Gothic bible (4
th
century): Father = atta (Fadar attested once: O Father)
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Verners evidence (1) kinship terms
Meaning Sanskrit Verners
Germanic
pridiction
Attested
Gothic
Attested
Old High
German
Father pitár fadar Atta Atto~fater
Brother bhrátar brar Brar bruoder
Mother-in-law var- swigar swaihro swigar
Father-in-
law
váura- swehur swaihra swehur
Verners proof obtained by omitting
all the evidence that does not match!
Exactly 50% do not match - expected by chance!
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Verners evidence (2) : conjugation of verb
Meaning Sanscrit as cited byVerner
Verners Germanicreconstruction
To go Bhédana * Lan
I go bhédmi * la
You go bhédasi * lis
He goes bhédati * li
We go bhédmas * lam
You go bhédatha * li
They go bhédanti * land
I went (past) bibhéda * lai
You went (past) bibhéditha * laist
He went (past) bibhéda * lai
We went (past) bibhidimá * lidum
You went (past) bibhidá * lidu
They went (past) bibhidús * lidun
... Then the
Germanic consonant
becomes voiced
voiceless
voiced
If there is no
Sanskrit accent
beforehand ...
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Verners evidence (2) : conjugation of verb
How isGermanicreconstructed?
Gothic ± All voiceless
± merger
Old English ± Does not
match
± Analogy
OHG ± Inverted
alternation
± Not explained
Germanicforced to
match!
Meaning Sanscrit as cited byVerner
Verners Germanicreconstruction
To go Bhédana * Lan
I go bhédmi * la
You go bhédasi * lis
He goes bhédati * li
We go bhédmas * lam
You go bhédatha * li
They go bhédanti * land
I went (past) bibhéda * lai
You went (past) bibhéditha * laist
He went (past) bibhéda * lai
We went (past) bibhidimá * lidum
You went (past) bibhidá * lidu
They went (past) bibhidús * lidun
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Verners evidence (2) : conjugation of verb
Meaning Sanscrit as cited byVerner
To go Bhédana
I go bhédmi
You go bhédasi
He goes bhédati
We go bhédmas
You go bhédatha
They go bhédanti
I went (past) bibhéda
You went (past) bibhéditha
He went (past) bibhéda
We went (past) bibhidimá
You went (past) bibhidá
They went (past) bibhidús
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Verners evidence (2) : conjugation of verb
Verner
conjugates
to go as
class 1
But in fact it
is Class 7!
Meaning Sanscrit as cited byVerner
To go Bhédana
I go bhédmi
You go bhédasi
He goes bhédati
We go bhédmas
You go bhédatha
They go bhédanti
I went (past) bibhéda
You went (past) bibhéditha
He went (past) bibhéda
We went (past) bibhidimá
You went (past) bibhidá
They went (past) bibhidús
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Verners evidence (2) : conjugation of verb
Verner
conjugates
to split as
class 1
But in fact it
is Class 7!
Meaning Sanscrit as cited byVerner
Attested Sanskrit
To go Bhédana bhindaná
I go bhédmi bhinádmi
You go bhédasi bhinátsi
He goes bhédati bhinátti
We go bhédmas bhindmás
You go bhédatha bhin(t)thá
They go bhédanti bhindánti
I went (past) bibhéda bibhéda
You went (past) bibhéditha bibhéditha
He went (past) bibhéda bibhéda
We went (past) bibhidimá bibhidimá
You went (past) bibhidá bibhidá
They went (past) bibhidús bibhidús
Verner forcedthe Germanic
reconstruction
to match the
wrong Sanskrit!
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Summary of Verners evidence
Kinship terms ± Perfect match obtained by omitting all counter-
evidence
Verbal conjugation ± Verner reconstructs a prehistoric Germanic
conjugation But it does not accord with any attested ones
± Crates a Perfect match with an erroneous Sanskrit
conjugation! Conclude Verners Law is invalid
± contradicted by all the evidence in the original paper
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More on sound laws
Many further laws are based on similar methods ± rescuing procedures when the data do not match
± Able to match almost any data
If an attested word appears to be an exception ± Add a special event in word development
Eg father lost initial p in Old Irish Athir
± Add a sub-law (contextual specification) Today there are over 200 laws and sub-laws
± Add some intermediate rules
Perhaps like Verners rules for reconstructing Gmc conjugation If all else fails
± call it not cognate
± Therefore still not an exception
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Newton rejected models like this
There are today more than 200 laws and sub-laws
± In fact there are more laws & sub-laws than words to
be explained in Rix dictionary
This fails Newtons test for a valid scientific model
± What certainty can there be in a Philosophy which
consists in as many Hypotheses as there are
Phaenomena to be explained.
Because the model can flex to match any data
± Newton: New Hypotheses may be devised that shall
seem to overcome new difficulties
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Conclusion
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The Gordian knot Received wisdom is that Sanskrit derived from
Indo-European
No evidence from archaeology, palaeo-anthropology or genetics
The only evidence is linguistic
We examined the linguistic theory ± it is based on mistaken evidence
± It fails Sir Isaac Newtons criterion for an acceptablescientific model - it is unfalsifiable
± Many claimed IE correlations are in fact due tocontact
Challenge the Indo-European theory ± There is no evidence for the existence of an Indo-
European speech community
± May cut the Gordian knot
± Allow space for alternative models for the origin of Sanskrit
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Thank you
Angela Marcantonio
University of Rome La Sapienza
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Verners 1876 proof of his founding Law of IE
Law (simplified) says: Germanic t changes into d unless the correspondingconsonant in the Sanskrit word is preceded by an accent ± Also: p to b and k to g
± But Sanskrit has tones, not a stress accent
Verners preliminary proof uses father ± Sanskrit Pitár -> Germanic f ad ar
He selectively omits to mention contradictions to his law ± Atta = father contradicts his theory
± So he uses f adar even though cited once only (O Father)
± In fact, his preliminary proof uses 4 kinship terms. 50% of the attestedGermanic forms contradict his theory but are not mentioned
Verners backbone evidence is also forced ±
Conjugates bhid- ( to split, smash, break) as class 1 (its class 7)! ± Uses this mistaken conjugation to predict t ~d etc. in the assumed
corresponding Germanic Strong conjugation
± But the attested Germanic conjugations do not match this prediction
± Reconstructs hypothetical prehistoric Germanic conjugation that preciselymatches this mistaken Sanskrit conjugation and seems to prove his law
± Today this reconstruction is widely cited in textbooks as proof of Verners Law
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Linguistic evidence (2): Sound laws
regular and systematic sound-changes inside IE words,governed by sound-laws ± Describe changes from IE -> Skt, IE->Greek etc.
± Sound changes claimed to be regular and systematic
±This enables you to transform the attested words so that theyseem to match precisely
Father is one of the key items of evidence (detail later)!!
Another widely quoted example: to carry, bear ± Skt bhara-mi Greek pher-o, Latin f er-o, OHG bir-u
±Claimed similarities across root and conjugation
± (again selective choice of Sanskrit word)
But to the naked eye these are different! ± The method seems to be able to justify this difference
± How?
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Summary (1) - methodology
Problems with the linguistic evidence for IE ± forced similarities do not match common sense or the
archaeological evidence
Unfalsifiable theory ± Not actually supported by evidence, but theres always an
excuse
The common sense approach ± Look at geographical distribution of words (isoglosses)
± Look at opportunities for word to spread
± If they match, investigate why
What if your evidence contradicts the IE theory? ± Dont be afraid to publish your data
± The linguistic evidence does not trump yours!
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Verners evidence (1) kinship terms
Meaning Sanskrit Verners
Germanic
pridiction
Attested
Gothic
Attested
Old High
German
Father pitár fadar Atta(fadar=1 citation)
Brother bhrátar brar Brar
Mother-in-
law
var- swigar swigar
Father-in-
law
váura- swehur swehur
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Verners founding law of Indo-
European
Angela Marcantonio
University of Rome La Sapienza
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Introduction
Hypothesis of Indo-European speech
community became scientific with creation
of sound laws
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Example 1: subsistence word: Rye
Crop grows incoldtemperatures
All bordering the
sea in NorthernEurope
North Europeansea trading
communityprovidedopportunity forword to spread
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Forced interpretation of a local word (Rye)
as Indo-European Ry e in three IE language
groups (Russian, Germanic,Baltic) so must be IE!
But cant reconstruct theIE word ± Reconstruct IE god
*Deiwos- caused rye fieldsto ripen
But contradicted bypresence in Finnish ± Borrowed into Finno-Ugric
at an early date
Unfalsifiable theory ± Not actually supported
by evidence, but theresalways an excuse
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