For more than 3000 years, Indo-European languages have been spoken from India through Persia and into Europe. Where are the origins of this language family? How and when did its different linguistic branches emerge? The renowned historical linguist Harald Haarmann provides a graphic account of what we know today about the origins of Indo-European languages and cultures and how they came to be so widely disseminated. In this impressive study, he succeeds in drawing connections between linguistic findings, archaeological discoveries and the latest research into human genetics and climate history. In addition to linguistic affinities, he shows the economic, social and religious concepts that the early speakers of Indo-European languages had in common all the way from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Indus. Particular attention is devoted to the processes of assimilation with pre-Indo-European languages and civilisations. The result is a fascinating panorama of early “Indo-European globalisation” from the end of the last ice age to the early civilisations in Greece, Italy, Asia Minor, Persia and India.

For more than 3000 years, Indo-European languages have been spoken from India through Persia and into Europe. Where are the origins of this language family? How and when did its different linguistic branches emerge? The renowned historical linguist Harald Haarmann provides a graphic account of what we know today about the origins of Indo-European languages and cultures and how they came to be so widely disseminated. In this impressive study, he succeeds in drawing connections between linguistic findings, archaeological discoveries and the latest research into human genetics and climate history. In addition to linguistic affinities, he shows the economic, social and religious concepts that the early speakers of Indo-European languages had in common all the way from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Indus. Particular attention is devoted to the processes of assimilation with pre-Indo-European languages and civilisations. The result is a fascinating panorama of early “Indo-European globalisation” from the end of the last ice age to the early civilisations in Greece, Italy, Asia Minor, Persia and India.

The series «Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture» presents a forum for linguistic research on the interrelationship between language and culture. The series is interdisciplinary in nature and consists of monographs and collections of papers. The main purpose of the editors is to initiate a dialogue between linguistic science and neighboring disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, semiotics, literary studies, and intercultural communication.