Indo-Slavic lexical isoglosses and the prehistoric dispersal of Indo-Iranian

Palmér, A.I. (2024)

Doctoral Thesis

As part of the Indo-European language family, the Indo-Iranian branch traces its origins back to the Indo-European homeland on the Pontic-Caspian steppe 5000 years ago. But how did it spread from there to Asia? The aim of this thesis is to uncover the early prehistory of Indo-Iranian by investigating its relationship to the Balto-Slavic languages of Eastern Europe, which have been hypothesized to form a subgroup with Indo-Iranian: Indo-Slavic. By comparing the linguistic data with evidence from archaeology and genetics, this thesis traces the migration path of prehistoric Indo-Iranian speakers from the Pontic-Caspian steppe, via the rivers and forests of Eastern Europe, across the Ural Mountains, and southwards to the steppes of Central Asia.

• Comparative linguistics
• Indo-European
• Indo-Iranian
• Balto-Slavic
• Subgrouping
• Phylogenetics
• Etymology
• Lexical isoglosses
• Plaeolinguistics
• Archaeolinguistics

• All authors: Palmér, A.I.
• Supervisor: Kroonen, G.J.; Lubotsky, A.M.
• Committee: Korn, A.; Kümmel, M.J.; Pronk, T.C.; Schaeken, J.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2024-07-02