The Languages of Europe before Indo-Europ

I have a more elaborated (but not definitive) opinion:

Disclaimer: what follows is a reconstruction. Some or all may have to be reviewed because of data (existing or new) that may contradict it. We just can approach the language imagining (with some logic) that each cultural group had their own language or rather family of languages. But, of course, this may be assuming too much.

Stage 1: Paleolithic: Three major areas:

• West (basically South France and areas of northern Spain) - surely ancestors of Basques, among other Westerners
  
• Central (Germany south of the ice sheet, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, north and west Hungary) - culturally and genetically akin to the first ones
• Eastern (Ukraine and Don Basin) - more related to Caucasus and Balcans it seems
• Med-Iberian, partly close to Western
  
• Italian, more separated culturally but genetically akin too

Let's say each one had a linguistic subfamily, though some maybe related in families. My best guess is Basquic languages in Western-Central Europe, Caucasic in Ukraine, Caucasus, Anatolia... and the Balcans. But it may be a very simplified guess, I admit.


Stage 2: Epi-Paleolithic:

Expansion into the formerly iced areas. I'd say that the Basquic languages spread to the north, to Britain and Denmark.


Stage 3: Neolithic:

• Caucasic (?) tongues (maybe others too) consolidate their presence in the Balcans (till then more dubious).
  
• Mediterranean languages (family ???) expand to some areas in European Western Med. I guess Iberian or some Iberians (as they could be several tongues) could be from this background.
  
• Central Europe possibly adopted the Caucasic tongues as the agriculture and its associated Danubian culture spread - yet it's not clear the linguistic adscription of this group, that could have kept their "Basquic" roots as well. 
• Andalusia may recieve Tartessian in this time too

Stage 4: Chalcolithic: IE invasion (and parallel norther Uralic migration):

IEs take in few centuries over Eastern Europe and displace the Eastern Europeans of Caucasic (?) tongue towards the NE and SE. In Denmark and Low Germany they mix with locals to create hybrid cultures, while in the Eastern Baltic and Sweden they seem first colonizers.

IEs follow them and evetually conquest most or all of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, except for the Uralic ecological niche in the far north.

In the West and Italy we still find pre-IE peoples of "Basquic" or "Mediterranean" tongues.

Stage 4: Bronze and Iron Ages:

IE consolidation and diversification. By the early centuries of our Conventional Era almost all Europe speak IE languages.

I am aware of being using adventurous catchall terms but we have to put a name to things, in order to explain ourselves. I use the term Caucasic loosely in the knowledge that Hurrians and Hattis seem to have spoken it. I base the Caucasus-Ukraine connection in related Gravettian heritage that penetrates into the mountainous regions of West Asia. The presence of haplogroup I can also be a hint of connection.

I don't believe much in speculative superfamilies like that Sino-Dene-Caucaso-Basque-whatever. It might be but I suspect it a fallacy. We seem so far able to trace our linguistic dissociation only so fra back. Probably 60 or 50 theousand years ago all languages of Eurasia (or at least a big part of it) were just one... but we can hardly know. I see no relation between Basque and Chinese, while Basco-Caucasian theory seems totally abandonded (true that Caucasian languages other than Georgian are all poorly studied). We can guess that Basque was isolated many milennia in the Paleolithic. Maybe Caucasics are related but it must be at least from the times of Gravettian expansion. I doubt anything can be detected after so many generations apart, we are talking of 25-30,000 years back (at least) - any relation with Chinese and Na-Dene (if any) must be even much older (at least 40,000 years).

We must understand that Basque and the whole Atlantic family/families of languages evolved in pretty much isolation for thousands of years. This can bring a huge diversity but also a huge separation from anything else still alive elsewhere.

I suspect that some Iberian languages (maybe a catchall term too) may be distantly related to Basque but the distance is just too great to allow for any clear identification. Some Iberian sounds to Basque... but can't be read with it - nothing clear. Toponimy also sounds strangely Basque in all the Iberian area, starting by the very name Iber (river bank in Basque, modernly ibar) and following by names like Iliberri ("new town/city"), Andaratx (Los Millares river, "rock of the lady") and so many others. This would mean that some Iberians were ethnically (linguistically) native, I believe - but maybe of a separate branch.

Another posibility would be that Basques started speaking Iberian but considering the cultural influences of late Prehistory, it seems unlikely.

Originally posted by Odin   When did Uralic spread west? They must of been in northern Europe before the IEians since Proto-Germanic took up a lot of Finnic words.

Really? There are a lot of Proto-Germanic loan words in Finnic languages, and there is probably a pre-IE substratum in Germanic, but I have never heard it is related to Uralic languages.

Originally posted by aeon Originally posted by Odin   When did Uralic spread west? They must of been in northern Europe before the IEians since Proto-Germanic took up a lot of Finnic words. Really? There are a lot of Proto-Germanic loan words in Finnic languages, and there is probably a pre-IE substratum in Germanic, but I have never heard it is related to Uralic languages.

 

Oops, nevermind, I just checked Wiki and I had it mixed up. The article on Proto-Germanic said Finnic got a lot of words from Proto-Germanic, not the other way around.  Then I came to the incorect conclusion that Uralic was the language of Scandianvia before Germanic after reading the Germanic Substrate Hypothesis article. *smacks head*