Papers by Anthony Jakob
Guus Kroonen (ed.), Sub-Indo-European Europe: Problems, Methods, Results [= Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 375]. De Gruyter Mouton, 29–48, 2024
Using the now largely forgotten and eccentric works of Slovene linguist Karel Oštir as a novel st... more Using the now largely forgotten and eccentric works of Slovene linguist Karel Oštir as a novel starting point, I discuss some bird names in Balto-Slavic that are unlikely to be inherited and which may well have been adopted from unattested pre-Indo-European languages as can be inferred from the irregular sound correspondences exhibited by their continuants across the different European branches. These are the words for 'pigeon' (Slavic golǫbь ~ Latin columba), 'swan' (Russian lébed' ~ Polish łabędź ~ Old High German albiz) and 'oriole' (Lithuanian volungė̃ ~ Polish wilga ~ Middle High German wite-wal). In each case, parallels are sought for the irregularities, and attention is paid to the geography of the various alternants. This makes it possible to sketch out a relatively coherent stratum of non-Indo-European terms primarily consisting of bird names.
Santeri Junttila (ed.), E litoribus Balticis etymologiae [= Uralica Helsingiensia 15]. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 123–162, 2024
Several scholars, most famously Paul Ariste, have put forward that beside Indo-European languages... more Several scholars, most famously Paul Ariste, have put forward that beside Indo-European languages, some additional languages of unknown affiliation have contributed to the Finnic lexicon. However, the idea has received relatively little attention and no generally accepted linguistic methodology is available. This paper explores various methodological approaches by combining Finnic and Baltic data. It is concluded that many previous proposals are built on the absence of etymology and semantics alone, which is insufficient to substantiate a substrate origin. Non-Uralic phonotactics and morphology cannot by themselves provide proof of a specifically non-Indo-European substrate. A strong case can only be made where at least two independent witnesses of the word are found, and where mutual borrowing or shared inheritance can be ruled out. It cannot be demonstrated that Finnic *sīka ‘whitefish’ is a loan from a substrate language, as no independent witnesses which could not be loaned from it can be identified. On the other hand, Finnic *silakka, Prussian sylecke and Old Norse síld ‘herring’ seem to be a good candidates for a shared substrate word. Other potential substrate words discussed in the paper include the word for ‘thousand’ (Baltic *tū’stant-, Finnic *tuhante̮-, Mordvin *ťožəm-, etc.), which shows problematic correspondences both in Indo-European and Uralic and may be intepreted as a Wanderwort, and a word for ‘moss’ (Baltic *samanā-, Finnic *sammal, North Saami seamul, etc.), which shows a number of problematic Saami comparanda, suggesting a connection with the palaeo-Laplandic substrate proposed by Aikio. On the basis of this material, it is concluded that it is unlikely that we are dealing with a single, monolithic donor language, and that perhaps multiple languages of unknown affiliation have contributed to the substrate lexicon of the region’s languages.
Baltistica, 2023
In this paper, I discuss five words in the East Baltic languages which have a dubious history. (1... more In this paper, I discuss five words in the East Baltic languages which have a dubious history. (1) Lithuanian kẽmeras 'hemp agrimony' has entered the standard language through botanical literature and derives ultimately from Nesselmann's incorrect interpretation of an obsolete kiemerai 'demon(s), incubus'; (2) sálti 'to flow' is known only from a single quotation deriving from K. Jaunius. It seems just as possible to interpret it semantically as 'to creep' and therefore as related to Lithuanian selėti 'to creep'. Other forms attributed to this root also permit alternative interpretations; (3) bãlas 'white' is known only from Juška's dictionary, where it may represent a rationalization of bãlas 'anemone'. Only the latter can independently be verified from Žemaitian sources; (4) uodẽgis 'fox', often quoted in the Germanicist literature, results from a misinterpretation of the gloss given in Kurschat's dictionary. Furthermore, uodẽgis 'Fuchsschwänzer' seems, in turn, to derive from Nesselmann's misreading of Mielcke's dictionary; (5) both Latvian īls 〈ihls〉 and ikls 'stockfinster' trace back to a lost manuscript dictionary by Fürecker; one is almost certainly an error, and it is further tempting to interpret ikls as an error for the otherwise attested akls 'blind, pitch dark'.
K. Kristiansen, G. Kroonen, & E. Willerslev (Eds.), The Indo-European Puzzle Revisited: Integrating Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics. Cambridge University Press, 2023
Pre-print (pagination corresponds to actual publication).
The first use of metals in the produ... more Pre-print (pagination corresponds to actual publication).
The first use of metals in the production of objects among human societies was undoubtedly a defining event with a profound, irreversible impact on craftsmanship, agriculture, trade, warfare, and other cultural and political phenomena. The continuous refinement of metallurgical practice, including the introduction of new metals, has left behind some of the most conspicuous and important archaeological remains. Furthermore, the linguistic and archaeological evidence provided by metals can be combined to cast light on the relative placement of reconstructed languages in time and space through the use of linguistic palaeontology (cf. already Schrader 1883). For the study of the expansion of the Indo-European (IE) languages, examining the inventory of metallurgical vocabulary is thus highly relevant – not only for dating and locating the dissolution of each language, but also for determining the branching and spread of the successive daughter languages, and how they were influenced by foreign languages.
PLoS ONE 17(10), 2022
Questions on the timing and the center of the Indo-European language dispersal are central to deb... more Questions on the timing and the center of the Indo-European language dispersal are central to debates on the formation of the European and Asian linguistic landscapes and are deeply intertwined with questions on the archaeology and population history of these continents. Recent palaeogenomic studies support scenarios in which the core Indo-European languages spread with the expansion of Early Bronze Age Yamnaya herders that originally inhabited the East European steppes. Questions on the Yamnaya and Pre-Yamnaya locations of the language community that ultimately gave rise to the Indo-European language family are heavily dependent on linguistic reconstruction of the subsistence of Proto-Indo-European speakers. A central question, therefore, is how important the role of agriculture was among the speakers of this protolanguage. In this study, we perform a qualitative etymological analysis of all previously postulated Proto-Indo-European terminology related to cereal cultivation and cereal processing. On the basis of the evolution of the subsistence strategies of consecutive stages of the protolanguage, we find that one or perhaps two cereal terms can be reconstructed for the basal Indo-European stage, also known as Indo-Anatolian, but that core Indo-European, here also including Tocharian, acquired a more elaborate set of terms. Thus, we linguistically document an important economic shift from a mostly non-agricultural to a mixed agro-pastoral economy between the basal and core Indo-European speech communities. It follows that the early, eastern Yamnaya of the Don-Volga steppe, with its lack of evidence for agricultural practices, does not offer a perfect archaeological proxy for the core Indo-European language community and that this stage of the language family more likely reflects a mixed subsistence as proposed for western Yamnaya groups around or to the west of the Dnieper River.
Indo-European Linguistics, 2021
This paper presents a detailed etymological analysis of words for ‘fox’ in Indo-European (IE) lan... more This paper presents a detailed etymological analysis of words for ‘fox’ in Indo-European (IE) languages. We argue that most IE ‘fox’-words go back to two distinct PIE stems: *h₂lō̆p-eḱ- ‘fox’ and *ulp-i- ‘wildcat, fox’. We provide a revised analysis of the etymology and relationship among the various Indo-Iranian ‘fox’-words, and we argue that Baltic preserves remnants of the ḱ-suffix found in Greek, Armenian, and Indo-Iranian. Additionally, we describe how *h₂lō̆p-eḱ- was borrowed from Indo-Iranian into Uralic and we outline the relationship among the reflexes of this word in various Uralic languages. Finally, we reconstruct the paradigm of *h₂lō̆p-eḱ- as a unique type of hysterodynamic stem, which nonetheless has close parallels in PIE. We observe that a similar ḱ-suffix is found in PIE adjectives and animal names.
Drafts by Anthony Jakob
A few ideas about Permic vocalism which might eventually (perhaps) be turned into a paper.
Conference Presentations by Anthony Jakob
Since Thomsen's seminal study (1890), it has been known that Baltic underwent a period of intense... more Since Thomsen's seminal study (1890), it has been known that Baltic underwent a period of intense contact with Finnic. Genetic and archaeological evidence that Finnic speakers arrived very recently in the Baltic Sea region (Lang 2018; Saag et al. 2019) place this contact event inland. Agricultural loanwords appear to be associated with a diversification of agriculture in the Late Bronze Age, which could be connected to the arrival of the Balts (Piličiauskas et al. 2017). However, the picture remains incomplete: some of the shared vocabulary between Baltic and Finnic cannot be explained as direct loanwords, and might point to independent loans from an unidentified source language (Junttila 2015). The complexity of the contact situation may also reflect an in-flow of hunter-gatherer-derived populations into the Baltic during the Bronze Age (Mittnik et al. 2018; Saag et al. 2019). With a focus on fishing terminology, I will assess whether certain Baltic words can be associated with a layer of substrate terms identified in the westernmost branches of Uralic (Saarikivi 2004; Aikio forthc.).
The so-called "ruki law" remains one of the clearest arguments in favour of a "satem" branch of I... more The so-called "ruki law" remains one of the clearest arguments in favour of a "satem" branch of Indo-European, uniting in particular Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic. However, the validity of this law for Baltic specifically has not always been generally accepted, and was in fact denied by most for the first half of the twentieth century. This changed when a few articles in the 1960s, as Villanueva put it, made it "patently clear" that the law did in fact apply here. Yet behind this patent clarity remain a whole host of unresolved contradictions. In this talk, I look again at the evidence, try to figure out how we got to the current consensus, and offer an alternative way out.
Books by Anthony Jakob
A History of East Baltic through Language Contact, 2024
The East Baltic languages are well known for their conservative phonology as compared to other In... more The East Baltic languages are well known for their conservative phonology as compared to other Indo-European languages, which has led to a stereotype that the Balts developed in isolation without much contact with other speech communities. This book challenges that view, taking a deep dive into the East Baltic lexicon and peeling away the layers of prehistoric borrowings in the process. As well as significant contact events with known languages, the lexicon also reveals evidence of contact with unattested languages from which previous populations must have shifted.
My PhD dissertation defended on July 7 2023. This work has now been superceded by the publication... more My PhD dissertation defended on July 7 2023. This work has now been superceded by the publication A History of East Baltic through Language Contact (Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2024). Please cite the latter rather than this work.
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Papers by Anthony Jakob
The first use of metals in the production of objects among human societies was undoubtedly a defining event with a profound, irreversible impact on craftsmanship, agriculture, trade, warfare, and other cultural and political phenomena. The continuous refinement of metallurgical practice, including the introduction of new metals, has left behind some of the most conspicuous and important archaeological remains. Furthermore, the linguistic and archaeological evidence provided by metals can be combined to cast light on the relative placement of reconstructed languages in time and space through the use of linguistic palaeontology (cf. already Schrader 1883). For the study of the expansion of the Indo-European (IE) languages, examining the inventory of metallurgical vocabulary is thus highly relevant – not only for dating and locating the dissolution of each language, but also for determining the branching and spread of the successive daughter languages, and how they were influenced by foreign languages.
Drafts by Anthony Jakob
Conference Presentations by Anthony Jakob
Books by Anthony Jakob
The first use of metals in the production of objects among human societies was undoubtedly a defining event with a profound, irreversible impact on craftsmanship, agriculture, trade, warfare, and other cultural and political phenomena. The continuous refinement of metallurgical practice, including the introduction of new metals, has left behind some of the most conspicuous and important archaeological remains. Furthermore, the linguistic and archaeological evidence provided by metals can be combined to cast light on the relative placement of reconstructed languages in time and space through the use of linguistic palaeontology (cf. already Schrader 1883). For the study of the expansion of the Indo-European (IE) languages, examining the inventory of metallurgical vocabulary is thus highly relevant – not only for dating and locating the dissolution of each language, but also for determining the branching and spread of the successive daughter languages, and how they were influenced by foreign languages.