PROTO EB
About this book
*A GUARDIAN AND WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2025*
'The fascinating story of ancient words … new revelations await' The Guardian
'A magisterial feat' New Scientist
________________________________
One ancient language transformed our world. This is its story.
Star. Stjarna. Stare. Thousands of miles apart, people look up at the night sky and use the same word to describe what they see.
Listen to these English, Icelandic and Iranic words and you can hear echoes of one of the most extraordinary journeys in humanity's past. All three of these languages – and hundreds more – share a single ancient ancestor.
Five millennia ago, in a mysterious Big Bang of its own, this proto tongue exploded, forming new worlds as it spread east and west. Today, nearly half of humanity speaks an Indo-European language. How did this happen?
In Proto, acclaimed journalist Laura Spinney sets off to find out. 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 tongues far and wide. In the present, Spinney meets the linguists, archaeologists and geneticists racing to recover this lost world. What they have discovered has vital lessons for our modern age, as people and their languages are on the move again.
Proto is a revelatory portrait of world history in its own words.
Tools to learn more effectively
Saving Books
Keyword Search
Annotating Text
Listen to it instead
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Prologue
- Introduction: Ariomania
- 1. Genesis: Lingua obscura
- 2. Sacred Spring: Proto-Indo-European
- 3. First Among Equals: Anatolian
- 4. Over the Range: Tocharian
- 5. Lark Rising: Celtic, Germanic, Italic
- 6. The Wandering Horse: Indo-Iranian
- 7. Northern Idyll: Baltic and Slavic
- 8. They Came From Steep Wilusa: Albanian, Armenian, Greek
- Conclusion: Shibboleth
- Figures
- Footnotes
- Endnotes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Laura Spinney
- About the Publisher
Frequently asked questions
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app