Some phrases in the Proto-Indo-European Language (PIE)

The following list is an attempt at translating some common or famous phrases into Proto-Indo-European (PIE). They are not exact, and they can never really be exact, because PIE is a reconstructed language. That is to say, we can only guess how PIE was spoken based on evidence available in the Indo-European daughter languages. Our …

Some silly PIE-related memes I’ve made recently

The darker and untold story behind Schleicher's Fable

PIE *mori and PAA *m·r – Are they related?

The Proto-Indo-European word *mori is one of the many words that have been reconstructed for the language without much debate. It is present in enough of the daughter languages, and follows the expected sound change laws that we would expect, and so may be confidently added to the dictionaries and word lists. The only problem …

The Indo-European and Afroasiatic negative particles – A common origin

Proto-Indo-European (PIE) has two securely reconstructable negative particles, *ne and *mē. I believe that these two clearly correspond with, and are descended from the Proto-Afroasiatic (PAA) negative particles *n- and *m-.The Proto-Indo-European negative particlesThe first of the two negative particles is usually reconstructed as *ne, and is understood to mean 'not'. Some argue for an …

A Possible Etymology for the Name of the God ‘Apollo’

The etymology of the name of the god Apollo is not agreed upon by historians or linguists. As far back as the era of Ancient Greece, there were various theories in existence which suggested what the meaning of the name was supposed to have been. That the Ancient Greeks themselves no longer securely remembered what …

100 Proto-Indo-European Words that are inherited from Proto-Afroasiatic

The Afroasiatic Hypothesis maintains that the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is descended from the Proto-Afroasiatic language (PAA). A core part of this hypothesis is a list of words which are inherited from PAA to PIE, with regular sound change laws. There are between 500-1,000 words I have found which fit the criteria of inheritance from PAA-PIE, …