The Linguist

Chartered Institute of Linguists AUTUMN 2025 The Linguist 31 SECTION HEADER REVIEWS In 1786, Sir William Jones, the pre-eminent Oriental linguist of his age, declared of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin: "no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source which, perhaps, no longer exists." Words for animals, foods and family members from the three languages appeared to show more than mere passing resemblance. Could languages from as far apart as the Himalayas and the Atlantic coast be related? Proto: How one ancient language went global tells of the debated origins of a prehistoric language that mobilised, mutated and has lived on in a multitude of variants and strains spoken by nearly half of the world's population. The Steppe theory proposes that the predecessor to all existing and extinct Indo-European languages was spoken by nomadic herders in the heartland between the Dnieper and Don rivers 6,500 years ago: Proto-Indo- European (PIE). Aridisation prompted the pastoralists to disperse to the Balkans, Caspian Sea and the Baltic coast. As they travelled, settled and bred, they seeded new branches and vulgates in the language tree. By 2,000 BCE the linguistic and social influence of the men and women from the Steppe had reached as far west as Ireland. How did PIE migrate from eastern Europe to India? Common sense suggests an eastern trajectory, via the Caucasus and Persia. According to the Loop conjecture, however, some of the original herders who had travelled north-east to the Urals later embarked on a journey south, through the 'stans and into India. Their language, Baltic- Slavic, and Indo-Iranian shared 55 words. Languages spoken on the direct route to India showed no such correlation. Another viewpoint, 'Out of India', asserts that the prevailing direction of travel was westwards – not from the Steppe at all. Its appeal is strong among Hindu nationalists. As Laura Spinney observes: "At different times in different places, the Indo-European story has been beaten like warm copper to fit a political mould… Today, the story is still being beaten out of shape… but the beating is most energetic on the subcontinent." What of PIE itself? Historical linguists subject corpora, syntax trees and phonetics to big-data sifting and harvesting techniques to identify patterns in an ancient language and possible core features in its protolanguage. Word lists based on 'controlled speculation' containing around 2,000 words and stems have been reverse- engineered, e.g. pésk ('fish'), hérmos ('arm'), swésōr ('sister'). The linguistics in Proto is supported by archaeology and genetic science. It is a very thorough undertaking. Nevertheless, "the picture is patchy" in places. Some of the story we know, there is postulation, and the rest will remain unknown. Graham Elliott MCIL Proto: How one ancient language went global Laura Spinney William Collins, 2025, 352 pp; ISBN 9780008626525 Hardback £22 as a form of prognosis for the eponymous protagonist in Arielle Burgdorf's spellbinding novel Jeanne. The book begins with a brief insight into 'present-day' Jeanne, who has journeyed to Montreal, her home city, to escape her husband and take on a mysterious translation project. However, we are soon catapulted back in time as Burgdorf charts a journey through the tumultuous odyssey of Jeanne's past: the beginnings of her relationship with her husband, the early days of her role as translator of her husband's poetry, and her struggle with her identity as a queer person. Jeanne – also referred to as Jean and John – has an intricate inner world, which is perforated by the outside forces of her abusive husband and the judgement of society. As the novel goes on, she becomes increasingly vulnerable, delving even further into her private world and the language in which she finds solace, evoking the idea of translator as conspirator. At the same time, Burgdorf's voluptuous prose, which constantly evokes the sensual in both captivating and disturbing ways, mirrors the visceral process of birth. Yet in this novel, it is the birth of words that the author is interested in, which the composite translator/midwife makes possible. Despite this, Jeanne is not a novel which limits itself to one subject. 'Identity' is a key word which comes to mind – that most slippery of words, which seems to mean both everything and nothing at the same time. We are privy to the constant transformation of Jeanne's identity – her reinvention of herself, the exploration of her relationship with the French language, her role as wife, her role as conspirator and midwife of language. At certain points, we doubt the trustworthiness of Jeanne's point of view, as Burgdorf carefully inserts untranslated passages in French and Russian, playing with punctuation and perspective to communicate just how unravelled the protagonist's identity has become. And yet, as the novel lapses into more of a thriller towards the end, we feel as if she has triumphed, in more ways than one. As you might expect of a novel written by someone so clearly versed in the ethics and intricacies of literary translation, language is the thread which runs through Arielle Burgdorf's narrative, but it is by no means the only marker of identity within it. Jeanne takes on abuse, heritage, queer identity and literary influence, and does so in a resoundingly compelling manner, which makes the novel impossible to put down. Amy Lawson

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