Beginnings, Neolithic Age; Indo-European (language)

(Jody Gray): I begin with a little information about the Neolithic Age, specifically, agricultural settlements where people built shelters, planted grains and raised animals; versus a nomadic existence. Settlements are where people developed strong kinship bonds ("blood-lines"). There had always been "tribes" of people (those who traveled and lived together) and it appears there were always leaders; (first) referred to as chieftains. Over time, they began to "style" themselves as kings and it appears whether chieftain or king they claimed to have been descended from God (gods). Kings hated nomadic peoples as they were hard to control and tax; they were always looking for methods of controlling their constituents. Language was a form of control and unification; however, it was also used to separate the elite from the lower class (educated vs uneducated). Following is a quote from https://en.wikipedia. Anglo-Saxons: Migration (c. 410-c. 560) (assimilating and uniting people) The second process is explained through incentives: language was a key indicator of ethnicity in early England. In circumstances where freedom at law, acceptance with the kindred, access to patronage, and the use and possession of weapons were all exclusive to those who could claim Germanic descent, then speaking Old English without Latin or Brittonic inflection had considerable value…
  By the middle of the 6th century, some Brythonic people in the lowlands of Britain had moved across the sea to form Brittany, and some had moved west, but the majority were abandoning their past language and culture and adopting the new culture of the Anglo-Saxons -barriers began to dissolve between peoples… Brythonic names appear in the lists of Anglo-Saxon elite. The Wessex royal line was traditionally founded by a man named Cerdic, an undoubtedly Celtic name ultimately derived from Caratacus. This may indicate that Cerdic was a native Briton, and that his dynasty became anglicised over time… https://en.wikipedia. IndoMirgrations *slide-show.

https://en.wikipedia. Neolithic Age Era, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 10,200 BC, according to the ASPRO chronology, in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world and ending between 4500 and 2000 BC… The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops and of domesticated animals… Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of plants… einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and keeping of dogs, sheep and goats. By about 6900-6400 BCE, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use of pottery… Shelter: In the Paleolithic era, people did not normally live in permanent constructions. In the Neolithic, mud brick houses started appearing that were coated with plaster. (photo of reconstruction of a Neolithic house)

*Skara Brae [https://en.wikipedia.]

*Excavated dwellings at Skara Brae (Orkney, Scotland) ”housing” was built into “dugout” earth with stone walls.

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*Shetland Islands [https://en.wikipedia.] preserved ruins of a wheelhouse and broch at Jarlshof, “one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles”. Due to the practice, dating to at least the early Neolithic, of building in stone on virtually treeless islands, Shetland is extremely rich in physical remains of the prehistoric eras; there are over 5,000 archaeological sites. A midden site at West Voe on the south coast of Mainland, dated to 4320-4030 BC, has provided the first evidence of Mesolithic human activity on Shetland. Humans have lived in Shetland since the Mesolithic period. The earliest written references to the islands date back to Roman times. The early historic period was dominated by Scandinavian influences, especially from Norway.

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*https://en.wikipedia. The Indo-European family includes most of the modern languages of Europe, and parts of Western, Central, and South Asia. Indo-European languages, are a language family of several hundred related languages and dialects. There are about 445 living Indo-European languages, according to the estimate by Ethnologue, with two-thirds (313) of them belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch. The most widely spoken Indo-European languages by native speakers are English, Spanish, Hindustani, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Persian and Punjabi, each with over 100 million speakers. Today, 46% of the human population speaks an Indo-European language as a first language, by far the highest of any language family.  All Indo-European languages are descendants of a single prehistoric language, reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European, spoken sometime in the Neolithic. Although no written records remain, aspects of the culture and religion of the Proto-Indo-European people can also be reconstructed from the related cultures of ancient and modern Indo-European speakers who continue to live in areas to where the Proto-Indo-Europeans migrated from their original homeland. Several disputed proposals link Indo-European to other major language families. https://en.wikipedia. Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the linguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, the most widely spoken language family in the world.  Today, the most widely-spoken daughter languages of PIE are Spanish, English, Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Punjabi, German, French, and Marathi. Bengali language: Bangladesh, India (West Bengal, Tripura, Jharkhand, South Assam) English language: Worldwide *writing system: Latin script (English alphabet) French language: (native to) France. *writing system: Latin (French alphabet) German language: (native to) primarily German-speaking Europe *writing system: Latin (German alphabet) *official language: Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein. Hindi language: (native to) Northern India Marathi language: (native to) Maharashtra (India) *writing system: Devanagari (Balbodh) Portuguese language: (native to) Portugal, Brazil, Goa, Angola, Mozambique *writing system: Latin (Portuguese alphabet) Punjabi language: (native to) Punjab region; official language: India, Pakistan *writing system: Perso-Arabic Russian language: (native to) Russia, other post-Soviet states. *writing system: Cyrillic (Russian alphabet) Spanish language: Spain, Hispanic America, Equatorial Guinea (Africa) *writing system: Latin (Spanish alphabet) *official language in 21 countries https://en.wikipedia. Latin Script, a set of graphic signs (script) based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, which is derived from a form of the Cumaean Greek version of the Greek alphabet, used by the Etruscans. Proto-Italic (Latin): Portuguese, Glaician, Spanish, Catalan, French, Italian, Romanian, Aromanian, Rhaeto-Romance. Proto-Celtic (Celtic): Irish, Scottish, Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, Cornish, Manx. Proto-Germanic: English, German, Afrikaans, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Frisian, Icelandic, Faroese. Proto-Balto-Slavic: Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarussian, Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Serbo-Croatin, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Macedonian. Proto-Indo-Iranian: Nuristani, Hindustani, Bengali, Punjabi, Dardic, Iranic, Persian, Pashto, Balochi, Kurdish, Zaza Proto-Armenian Proto-Greek: Modern Greek, Romeyka, Tsakonian Albanian https://en.wikipedia. Ethnologue is published by SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization based in Dallas, Texas. The organization studies numerous minority languages in order to facilitate language development and work with the speakers of such language communities in translating portions of the Bible into their language. 1st edition, 1951: 10 mimeographed pages; 40 languages.

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Ethnogenesis (from Greek ethos, “group of people, nation” and genesis, “beginning, coming into being”) is “the formation and development of an ethnic group.” ...It can occur actively, as persons deliberately and directly ‘engineer’ separate identities to attempt to solve a political problem -the preservation or imposition of certain cultural values, power relations, etc. Since the late 18th century, such attempts have often been related to language revival or creation of a new language, in what eventually becomes a "national literature" (because they help define a national identity or provide a common reference point for that country’s culture). In the 19th and 20th centuries, societies challenged by the obsolescence of those narratives which previously afforded them coherence have fallen back on ethnic or racial narratives as a means of maintaining or reaffirming their collective identity, or polis.

Inclusive or exclusive nationalism. Ethnogenesis can be promoted to include or exclude any ethnic minority living within a certain country. Language revival… Finnish nationalism and ethnogenesis: (1892) Fennomans were opposed by the Svecomans, headed by Axel Olof Freudenthal (1836–1911). He supported continuing the use of Swedish as the official language; it had been a minority language used by the educated elite in government and administration. In line with contemporary scientific racism theories, Freudenthal believed that Finland had two “races”, one speaking Swedish and the other Finnish. The Svecomans claimed that the Swedish “Germanic race” was superior to the majority Finnish people.
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