Month: April 2014

Caucasian Languages

I had one day off from the work and spent some time trying to find websites that I frequently visited 15 years ago. (Regarding this, see another blog post).

Caucasus Mountains, Dagestan, area where Lezgian languages are spoken
Caucasus Mountains, Dagestan, area where Lezgian languages are spoken

Finally I found my way to The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire. On that website I found my way to some minor languages spoken in the Caucasian Mountains. These Lezgian languages today struggle for their lives to survive and keep their own culture.

Read more:

European Languages 7000 Years Ago

After the latest ice age, Europe got free from the ice and the population could move to new areas from the refuges — or the inhabited areas during the ice age.

The language situation in Europe around 5500BC. IE = Indo-European languages, Bs = Basque languages, SU = Ugric languages
The language situation in Europe around 5500BC. IE = Indo-European languages, Bs = Basque languages, SU = Ugric languages

During this era Europe underwent the neolithic revolution, the time when people switched from hunter gathering to domestication. It is assumed that the Indo-Europeans brought the domestication to Europe and therefore won terrain over the other linguistic groups.

 

Union of Poland and Lithuania

I read in the newspaper about the history of the Ukrainian language, and how it become different from the Russian during the Polish-Lithuanian Union.

The nations of Europe in 1493
The nations of Europe in 1493

That reminded me that I had saved years ago some maps from a site called “Historical Atlas of Europe and the Middle East”. Unfortunately that site no more exists, it existed back in 1997.

Anyway, I post the map that I had in my mind.

… and more maps are found here.

Language Sites I Miss

I was cleaning my old PC from files that I downloaded years ago.

The main language groups of the Indo-European family of languages
The main language groups of the Indo-European family of languages

Guess what I found? Well, old files from The Indo-European Database website. I kept spending time on this site in the beginning of this millennium. The site that focused on Indo-European languages featured language overviews, linguistic maps, and much more.

Unfortunately this website no more exists.