Pronouncing Proto-Indo-European

As Mark Liberman reports in the Language Log, Eric A. Powell  writes in Archaeology Magazine:

In 1868, German linguist August Schleicher used reconstructed Proto-Indo-European vocabulary to create a fable in order to hear some approximation of PIE. Called “The Sheep and the Horses,” and also known today as Schleicher’s Fable, the short parable tells the story of a shorn sheep who encounters a group of unpleasant horses.

There is an audio recording of this fable being read as the latest insights suggest that PIE may have been pronounced.

There is also (on page 2 of the Archaeology Magazine article) a recording of another story. I know nothing about PIE, but looking at this PIE text it seems that some words are recognisable from modern IE equivalents:

The King and the God

Once there was a king. He was childless. The king wanted a son. He asked his priest: "May a son be born to me!" The priest said to the king: "Pray to the god Werunos." The king approached the god Werunos to pray now to the god. "Hear me, father Werunos!" The god Werunos came down from heaven. "What do you want?" "I want a son." "Let this be so," said the bright god Werunos. The king's lady bore a son.

This is reconstructed in written Proto-Indo-European like this:

H₃rḗḱs dei̯u̯ós-k^we

H₃rḗḱs h₁est; só n̥putlós. H₃rḗḱs súh_xnum u̯l̥nh₁to. Tósi̯o ǵʰéu̯torm̥ prēḱst: "Súh_xnus moi̯ ǵn̥h₁i̯etōd!" Ǵʰéu̯tōr tom h₃rḗǵm̥ u̯eu̯ked: "h₁i̯áǵesu̯o dei̯u̯óm U̯érunom". Úpo h₃rḗḱs dei̯u̯óm U̯érunom sesole nú dei̯u̯óm h₁i̯aǵeto. "ḱludʰí moi, pter U̯erune!" Dei̯u̯ós U̯érunos diu̯és km̥tá gʷah₂t. "Kʷíd u̯ēlh₁si?" "Súh_xnum u̯ēlh₁mi." "Tód h₁estu", u̯éu̯ked leu̯kós dei̯u̯ós U̯érunos. Nu h₃réḱs pótnih₂ súh_xnum ǵeǵonh₁e.

To me the following equivalences seem obvious (my bolding above):

H₃rḗḱs = king (Latin rex)

súh_xnum = son

dei̯u̯ós = god (Latin deus)

prēḱst = priest

I wonder if the suffix in dei̯u̯ós-k^we might correspond to the Latin suffix -que meaning and.

It is also clear that dei̯u̯ós in the title is in the nominative case, while dei̯u̯óm has a different case inflection. I imagine too that the m in súh_xnum indicates an oblique case (presumably accusative) and that the cases are shown in the forms of the god’s name U̯érunos (nominative) U̯érune (vocative) and U̯érunom.(dative). I take my case names from modern IE languages.

Any comments on this from a PIE expert would be very welcome.

I have posted a family tree of Indo-European languages here.

Wikipedia on Schleicher’s fable and Proto-Indo-European.

(Image, Wikipedia)

Comments

[dw]

prēḱst means something like "ask for" (cf Latin preco).

The word for priest is ǵʰéu̯torm̥, literally "pourer" iirc. Cognate with Sanskrit hotr.

[John Cowan]

kwe = Latin -que, as you conjectured.

h1est = Latin est, English is.

moi̯ = French moi, dative case.

ǵn̥h1i̯etōd = Latin genere 'beget' with subjunctive ending.

Kʷíd = Latin quid 'what'.

u̯ēlh1si = Latin volo 'want', English will, German wollen 'want'.

leu̯kós = Greek λευκός 'bright, white', as in English leucocyte 'white blood cell'.

pótnih2 = Greek πότνια 'lady', the same pot as in Greek, English despot.

As a rough guide to pronunciation, ǵ and ḱ were probably similar to English j and ch respectively, and h1, h2, h3 were probably /h/, /x/, /xw/ (where /x/ = German ach-sound. hx means it was one of h1, h2, or h3, but we can't tell which. u̯ and i̯ are just English w and y respectively.

[Peter Harvey]

Thank you both very much indeed. It is fascinating to see how much more there is in that text.

Now that I think about it more, I remember that priest is from a root meaning old.

Latin preco will be Italian prego. I suppose that Spanish preguntar from Latin percontāri is different.

I now see pter as father.

I had identified pótnih2 as lady but couldn't make a connection. I am delighted to know that the Greek words for lady and despot have a common root.

[goofy]

*ḱludʰí = loud
ǵeǵonh1e = gonad
u̯eu̯ked = voice
h1i̯aǵeto = hagio-
km̥tá = heaven
gʷah2t = come

[goofy]

"despot" is from *dems potis "master of the house" - *dems "house" + *potis "master". Is this really related to πότνια "lady"?

[Peter Harvey]

Thank you very much Goofy for these fascinating insights.

[John Cowan]

Goofy: Yes, absolutely. ποτης 'lord' corresponds to ποτνια 'lady'; likewise, the feminine of δεσποτης is δεσποινα. The spelling Despina, which reflects the modern pronunciation, is used as a given name by Greek-Americans, meaning 'the Lady = the Virgin Mary'. It is also the name of one of the smaller moons of Neptune.