Can you learn Proto-Indo-European?

Originally Answered: How can I learn Proto-Indo-European? You can’t. It is a theoretical language from which the Indo-European languages have descended. It has left no written documents.

Is Proto-Indo-European a real language?

No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists. Far more work has gone into reconstructing PIE than any other proto-language, and it is the best understood of all proto-languages of its age. Over many centuries, these dialects transformed into the known ancient Indo-European languages.

How accurate is Proto-Indo-European?

No linguist would argue that it is a fully completed language and a perfectly accurate representation of something that was once spoken. It’s an approximation based on the languages that either managed to survive until recent times and/or left written texts.

Is Tibetan and Indo-European language?

Sino-Tibetan, also known as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages….Sino-Tibetan languages.

Why study Late Proto-Indo-European?

Instead of working on unending details and discussions of the language reconstruction, it takes Late Proto-Indo-European as a learned, modern language that can be used for communication, so that people not used to study with university manuals on comparative grammar can learn almost everything necessary about PIE in the most comfortable way.

What is the best way to study Indo-European linguistics?

Begin with one or more textbooks on historical linguistics. The best course is to include one which does not use Indo-European data at all, or only minimally, and one which is heavily based thereon. I suggest the following:

What is the best way to start learning a foreign language?

Alongside those, begin the study of ancient Indo-European languages. The easiest entries are Latin and Greek, because early research (which must always be referenced even if only to discard it) assumes literacy in both. There are many excellent textbooks for these.

What is the best Latin textbook for early research?

The easiest entries are Latin and Greek, because early research (which must always be referenced even if only to discard it) assumes literacy in both. There are many excellent textbooks for these. My preference for Latin is Moreland & Fleischer, Latin: An Intensive Course, or Balme & Morwood, Oxford Latin Course.