{"id":2841,"date":"2026-01-17T00:39:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T23:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paulheggarty.info\/blog\/?page_id=2841"},"modified":"2026-01-24T00:03:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T23:03:39","slug":"europe","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/paulheggarty.info\/blog\/europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe +"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”full_width_background” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”5px” equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” bg_color=”#f9f9f9″ scene_position=”center” top_padding=”2%” bottom_padding=”2%” left_padding_desktop=”1vw” constrain_group_2=”yes” right_padding_desktop=”1vw” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” id=”projects” advanced_gradient_angle=”0″ overlay_strength=”0.8″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_color=”#000000″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_divider_height=”99%” bg_image_animation=”none” shape_type=”straight_section” gradient_type=”default”][vc_column left_padding_desktop=”2vw” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” centered_text=”true” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” advanced_gradient_angle=”0″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” enable_animation=”true” animation=”fade-in-from-bottom” animation_easing=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” column_padding_type=”advanced” gradient_type=”default”][nectar_highlighted_text text_color=”#a4aa66″ style=”none” custom_font_size=”4vw” font_size_tablet=”6vw” font_line_height=”1.2″ text_direction=”default”]Europe … and Beyond[\/nectar_highlighted_text][nectar_highlighted_text text_color=”#82437c” style=”none” custom_font_size=”2vw” font_size_tablet=”6vw” font_line_height=”1.2″ text_direction=”default”]The \u2018Indo-European Question\u2019 \u2014 and the Origins of the Languages of Half of Humanity[\/nectar_highlighted_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” left_padding_desktop=”1em” right_padding_desktop=”1em” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none” gradient_type=”default” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][nectar_post_grid post_type=”portfolio” portfolio_category=”europe” portfolio_starting_category=”andes” order=”ASC” orderby=”date” flickity_controls=”next_prev_arrows_overlaid” 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The Languages of Europe \u2014 and of Half the World<\/span><\/h2>\n
Europe is home to a dazzling array of different national and regional languages.\u00a0 Yet however complex this panorama may seem at close detail, zoom out and it fast resolves into a strikingly straightforward \u2018big picture\u2019.\u00a0 Europe\u2019s history and origins can be framed above all in terms of just four<\/em> great language lineages that have spread in succession across it, over the past few thousand years, as spoken by Celts, Romans, \u2018Germans\u2019 and Slavs.<\/h6>\n
And against this \u2018big four\u2019 background, the exceptions too fit into their own, diverse places:\u00a0 whether unrelated forerunners (e.g. Basque) or latecomers (e.g. Hungarian); \u00a0or indeed sister lineages (like Greek and Albanian), but which did not<\/em> spread so spectacularly or durably.<\/h6>\n
Further back in time, the big four lineages, and almost (but not quite!) all other languages in Europe, trace back to the same single source.\u00a0 So too, moreover, do hundreds more languages, from Armenian to Kurdish, and across Iran, Central and South Asia, as far as Bengal.\u00a0 All are unexpected cousins of Europe\u2019s languages, and together they form \u2018Indo-European<\/strong>\u2019, the world\u2019s undisputed biggest family of languages, spoken by half of the world today.<\/h6>\n
Quite where their Proto-Indo-European ancestor language was originally spoken, however, and when and how its first branches spread so far afield, remain hotly debated enigmas of deep prehistory:\u00a0 this is \u2018the Indo-European question\u2019.\u00a0 Competing hypotheses emerged particularly from archaeology<\/strong>, while the new-found ability to analyse ancient DNA is bringing a revolutionary new perspective from genetics<\/strong>.\u00a0 And the latest, controversial analyses in linguistics<\/strong> use Bayesian phylogenetic analysis, aiming to establish a broad chronology for Indo-European from the new IE\u2011CoR database of \u2018cognate\u2019 word relationships across 161 languages, ancient and modern, of the Indo-European family (Heggarty et al. 2023).<\/h6>\n
In most recent history, the languages of Europe\u2019s first powerful nation states have also spread far and wide beyond Europe itself.\u00a0 Over the last five centuries or so, Spanish and Portuguese, then French and English, have continued changing and diverging, both within Europe and beyond, into what today are starkly different accents.\u00a0 The European language diaspora has also thrown up, or preserved, a far-flung scatter of minor languages still spoken far from their European \u2018homes\u2019:\u00a0 Pennsylvania \u2018Dutch\u2019, the Pomeranian \u2018German\u2019 of Wisconsin;\u00a0 Patagonian Welsh, Nova Scotia Gaelic; \u00a0Chabacano Spanish \u2018creole\u2019 in the Philippines.\u00a0 These and many more can all can be heard and compared at Sound Comparisons<\/em>, alongside a dedicated study on accents of English from around the world https:\/\/soundcomparisons.com\/Englishes<\/a>.<\/h6>\n
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Publications<\/span><\/h2>\n

of mine on this research theme of:\u00a0 Europe … and Beyond[\/nectar_responsive_text][vc_column_text css=”” text_direction=”default”]