Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> > That leads me to another question. How old do linguists think PIE is?
> > (Check how much green stuff is growing on it. Sorry, I had to say
> > that.)
> >
>
>I've read figures going from 5000 to 8000 years old for the "oldest" form
>reconstructed. Needless to say it's not something easy to know, since we
>don't
>have any archeological evidence that would allow a datation. The
>comparative
>method reconstructs a possible ancestor of the language compared, but it
>cannot
>say anything about the age of the reconstruction (indeed, it often
>reconstructs
>structures that didn't ever cohabit but are of different ages and formed
>and
>disappeared at different times).
>
Mycenaean Greek and Hettite are attested well back in the second millennium
BC - obviously the PIE stage must've occured before this. So we have a
pretty certain lower limit.
Andreas
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