IV.

Ancient Culture

The original meanings of only a limited number of hypothetical Proto-Indo-European words can be stated with much certainty; derivatives of these words occur with consistent meanings in most Indo-European languages. This small vocabulary suggests a New Stone Age or perhaps an early metal-using culture with farmers and domestic animals. The identity and location of this culture have been the object of much speculation. Archaeological discoveries in the 1960s, however, suggest the prehistoric Kurgan culture. Located in the steppes west of the Ural Mountains between 5000 and 3000 bc, this culture had diffused as far as Eastern Europe and northern Iran by about 2000 bc.

See also Franz Bopp; Jacob Grimm; Ferdinand de Saussure; Philology.

Selected statistical data from Ethnologue: Languages of the World, SIL International.