Linguist Recreates Sound of Ancient Proto-Indo-European Language

Posted on September 30, 2013

German linguist August Schleicher recreated the sound of the ancient language of Proto-Indo-European (PIE), which was spoken between 4,500 and 2,500 B.C. Archaeology magazine reports that Schleicher used reconstructed Proto-Indo-European vocabulary to create a fable in the lost language of PIE. The fable, created in 1868, is "The Sheep and the Horses," or Schleicher's Fable. It tells the story of a sheep that encounters a group of unpleasant horses. The text of the fable can be found on archaeology.org.

University of Kentucky linguist Andrew Byrd has updated the way Schleicher's Fable sounds using pronunciation from more recent knowledge about the language. You can listen to the lost language below:

ARCHAEOLOGY