Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global

(Hardback)

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'Lively and fascinating I loved it' David Bellos'Will stand as the go-to source for a generation at least' John McWhorter

One ancient language transformed our world. This is its story.

As the planet emerged from the last ice age, a language was born between Europe and Asia. This ancient tongue, which we call Proto-Indo-European, soon exploded out of its cradle, changing and fragmenting as it went, until its offspring were spoken from Scotland to China. Today those descendants constitute the worlds largest language family, the thread that connects disparate cultures: Dantes Inferno to the Rig Veda, The Lord of the Rings to the love poetry of Rumi. Indo-European languages are spoken by nearly half of humanity. How did this happen

Laura Spinney set out to answer that question, retracing the Indo-European odyssey across continents and millennia. With her we travel the length of the steppe, navigating the Caucasus, the silk roads and the Hindu Kush. We follow in the footsteps of nomads and monks, Amazon warriors and lion kings the ancient peoples who spread these languages far and wide. In the present, Spinney meets the scientists on a thrilling mission to retrieve those lost languages: the linguists, archaeologists and geneticists who have reconstructed this ancient diaspora. What they have learned has vital implications for our modern world, as people and their languages are on the move again. Proto is a revelatory portrait of world history in its own words.

Reviews

'In this thought-provoking book Laura Spinney shows how recent advances in genetics and archaeological discoveries have thrown new light on the history of the Indo-European languages that a great part of the world now speaks A lively and fascinating account of how these languages split from their root, developed in different ways, mingled with each other, crossed tracks, flourished and died. I loved it!'

David Bellos, author of Is That a Fish in your Ear

The great leap in genetic analysis of late has meant that the story of how one language left the steppes of Ukraine and became the earth's dominant language family has become clearer and more exciting than ever before. Hooray for a book where the author's curiosity, diligence, and literary craft gets it all down the language, the archaeology, the DNA in what will stand as the go-to source for a generation at least

John McWhorter, author of New York Times bestselling Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter

PRAISE FOR PALE RIDER

'Not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past'

Guardian

'Magisterial'

Observer

Weaves together global history and medical science to great effect Riveting

Sunday Times

'Impressive packed with fascinating, quirky detail'

Nature

'Wonderfully absorbing'

BBC History Magazine

Author Bio

Laura Spinney was born in Yorkshire in 1971 and graduated from Durham University with a degree in Natural Sciences. She has written for the New Scientist, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. Her first novel The Doctor was published by Methuen in 2001. She lives in Paris and London.