Where did the Polish language come from? appeared recently

This is what Dr.’s team did. Gray in particular, a group of 80 language specialists. Based on historical data, ancient records in extinct languages, and analysis of modern languages, they developed a new dataset containing the core vocabulary of 161 Indo-European languages, including 52 ancient or historical languages. In addition, they conducted computer modeling showing how people who speak languages ​​from the Indo-European family spread today. From these studies, they came to a surprising conclusion. One of the previous hypotheses turned out to be completely incorrect – the Indo-European languages ​​\u200b\u200bare not born in the remote steppes of today’s Kazakhstan. The second had to be slightly modified and detailed. It turns out that the Indo-European languages ​​\u200b\u200bcome from the northern reaches of the Fertile Crescent, namely from the area south of the Caucasus Mountains – from northern Persia to part of southern Anatolia, which is today on the territory of Turkey. According to the estimates of Dr. Gray, the evolution of the Indo-European languages ​​did not begin with 9,000 languages, but about 8,000 languages. 100 years ago.

Of course, there is still a long way from the birth of the Indo-European languages ​​to the emergence of the Polish language. First, the Proto-Slavic language emerged from the Proto-Indo-European languages. This happened, according to scientists, by about 1.5 thousand. years BC to this day, individual Slavic languages ​​\u200b\u200bare still very similar to each other.

– about 1,000 more. 300 years ago, the entire Slavic group was still one language. We traditionally call it Proto-Slavic – says Dr. Marek Mager from the University of Lodz. “It is only in the eighth century AD that we can date the first significant divisions of the Proto-Slavic language, but even in the next few centuries the differences between its local varieties must remain insignificant,” explains Dr. Mager. We can talk about the development of separate Slavic languages ​​\u200b\u200bonly from the end of the first millennium AD. – This is a process primarily related to the formation of more permanent political entities – in our case the Piast Monarchy – says Dr. Mager.

Polish philologists and historians are trying to recreate the language spoken by our ancestors. Nothing is known about the languages ​​spoken in Polish lands before the arrival of the Indo-European languages. “And such languages ​​must have been present here, because the presence of modern humans in our region goes back much further than a few thousand years,” says Dr. Mager.

Theoretically, some traces of these languages ​​could be preserved, even in local names or in some loanwords. But scientists do not have evidence (eg, related languages) that would identify these effects.

Even the name Vistula was suspected of being of pre-Indo-European origin. It is a name that is certainly not Slavic, but it cannot be attributed to any language of the Indo-European family. Was it adopted by pre-Indo-European people? “It can’t be ruled out, but it’s just speculation – we don’t know anything about these languages,” says Dr. Mager. – On the other hand, the names of several other important rivers, such as the Oder, Naro, Noto, Druka, or Druika, have been suspected of being of Indo-European origin, but cannot be attributed to any particular Indo-European language. Here, too, we are in the realm of speculation.

However, there is no doubt about the fact that many other Indo-European languages ​​were spoken in Poland before the arrival of the Slavs here. – In a significant part of the territory of present-day Poland, Germanic peoples lived before the arrival of the Slavs. The Celts used to live in the southern and southwestern regions of today’s Poland. In the southeast we have evidence of the presence of the Scythians. They spoke the language of the Iranian group. Finally, today’s northeastern regions of Poland were inhabited by peoples using languages ​​from the Baltic group, such as the Prussians or Yutvingians, whose languages ​​are the closest relatives of the Slavic languages, says Dr. Mager.

To this day, words emanating from the peoples who inhabited our lands before the arrival of the Slavs have been preserved in the Polish language. Place names ending in dz, such as Grudziądz, or names of small rivers ending in side likely have a Germanic origin (Clodubuc, Ulubuk). They have a form denoting Germanic word-forming elements (respectively -ing-, -bak– – the latter actually means “stream”), which, however, due to changes in the sounds typical of the Proto-Slavic language, took on its present form dz, -bok, – says Dr. Mager.

It is easier for scientists to reconstruct the Proto-Slavic language. – We know a lot about the Proto-Slavic language, because it is not very far back in time. They’re not scripted, but the Slavic languages ​​are so close to each other — and, in addition, some of them were documented in writing shortly after the break from Proto-Slavic — that we can reconstruct them with high accuracy and find traces of their connection with other Indo-European languages, he says. Dr.. majr.

Traces of the original Proto-Indo-European language are still to be found in the Polish language, although it no longer sounds like “native”. For example, the words for “son” and “widow” in Sanskrit (the language of ancient India) were Sunoh and Vidhava, respectively. – Proto-Indo-European word for “son” reconstructed as *suhnus (asterisk, star-shaped sign, meaning reconstructed form, i.e. one whose existence linguists suspect). In early Proto-Slavic, around the 5th century AD, the word *sūnu (Where Oh mean long u). Several hundred years later, in the late Proto-Slavic period from about the 9th century AD, it appears *synъ (where Oh In the end it should read somewhat like unstressed English H). At the time of the emergence of the Polish language, at the turn of the first and second millennium AD, he was already a son, just like today. Dr. Mager explains. Same with the word “widow”. – In the early 5th century AD, we had here *vidavā (where again a mean long a). Late Proto-Slavic in the 9th century already had the form *vьdova (where h It should read more or less like short English i). And at the turn of the millennium, at the beginning of the independent Polish language, it looked the same as it does today, says Dr. Mager.

Will we be able to coexist today with our ancestors who spoke the Proto-Slavic language? Probably not, because the differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation were so great. – It is enough to look at the oldest actually written Polish texts, such as “Kazania Świętokrzyskie” from the fourteenth century. Here we will already find many incomprehensible from our point of view, and the Proto-Slavic language is multi-hundred years old, – says Dr. Mager.