PROTO: Uncovering the shared origin of the world's most spoken languages.

About this episode

Laura Spinney discusses her book 'Proto' and the origins of the world's most spoken languages.

In this episode Laura Spinney talks about the background to her book 'Proto', an extraordinarily wide ranging and engaging account of the origin and archeology of Indo-European languages. We discuss the source of ancient DNA that is uncovering the extraordinary migration west of nomads from the Ukranian and Russian steppe along with their language, the ancestor of the most spoken languages in the world. Early philology, copper smelting (5000 years ago), pottery decoration of lactose intolerance ( among those nomad herdsmen and women) all get a mention. We also discuss before we discuss the origins of celtic languages and the various forms of English. All the above just a sample fo the stories in Laura's very readable guide. Participants: Laura Spinney, science journalist and writer https://www.lauraspinney.com/ Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk Laura's book 'Proto': https://www.lauraspinney.com/ More on 'proto-indo-european': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language The other proto language groups: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-language Laura's book, very well read, on Spotify…

People in this episode

Host: Ken Barrett

Guest: Laura Spinney

Topics covered

• language origin
• Indo-European languages
• migration
• philology
• celtic languages
• English language

Keywords

• Proto
• Indo-European
• language migration
• philology
• celtic languages
• English
• ancient DNA
• archaeology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Brainland, Spotify, Acast, Wikipedia

Books & works: Proto

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