LINGUISTIquips

In a recent typology class, two quite famous mysteries of the English language were brought up. Of course, they can’t be that famous, since I’ve never heard of them and I’m sure there are many like me, and I therefore elected to blog a bit about these two exciting enigmas.

Many of you may be familiar with the German derogative phrase “Schweinhund,” literally “pig dog.” However, did you know that “pig” and “dog” may give us clues about the who inhabited the British Isles before the Anglos (and, consequently, the Indo-European language family) arrived?

Consider this: historical linguists, on the whole, have done quite well attributing modern day words to historical roots. In fact, a quick look at the etymologies in the Oxford English dictionary will give you much more information than you probably wanted about any given word.

The words “pig” and “dog,” however, are a bit strange. Looking in their etymologies gets you back to around the 15th century, after which come the words “ultimate origin unknown.” Ooh. Spooky.

Words like “swine” and “hound,” of course, are far simpler to come up with etymologies for, both having pretty clear cognates in other Germanic languages. “Pig” and “dog” are different, though, as they are ultimately descended from an unknown parent.

Let’s call this parent “Old European,” as does this site:

Old European is a designation for the (mostly unknown) languages that were spoken in Europe prior to the spread of the Indo-European family which dominates the continent today. In this sense, Basque and the Caucasian languages are Old European languages. The term Old European, however, is often used more narrowly with reference to the unknown languages of the first Neolithic farmers in central Europe, who appear to have immigrated from the east around the year 5500 BC. Their original homeland probably no longer exists: it is drowned beneath the Black Sea, and was where now is the Bay of Odessa. (Before about 5500 BC, the Black Sea was a freshwater lake – the Euxine Lake – with a level much lower than the present day sea level. Then the rising sea burst through the Bosporus and flooded the Black Sea basin within a few years to almost the present day level.)

So who were these people, and what was Old European like? Some would suggest that Old European was actually Semitic, as it would explain the related VSO word order in Celtic languages. However, anything this far out is pure speculation… and that’s what makes it fun.

At the very least, “pig” and “dog” are the last remnants of a lost tongue, one that has become lost in the sands of time…