hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2023-11-22

■ #5322. 印欧語族人の故郷 --- Baugh and Cable の英語史より [voicy][heldio][helwa][celtic][bchel][hel_education][notice][khelf]

　Baugh and Cable の英語史の古典的名著 A History of the English Language （第6版）を原書で精読する Voicy 「英語の語源が身につくラジオ」 (heldio) でのシリーズ企画を始めて4ヶ月が過ぎました（cf. 「#5291. heldio の「英語史の古典的名著 Baugh and Cable を読む」シリーズが順調に進んでいます」 ([2023-10-22-1])）．ゆっくりペースではありますが途切れずに進んでいますし，オンライン精読の仲間も少しずつ増えてきています．

　目下，第2章の最終節，第26節 The Home of the Indo-Europeans 「印欧語族人の故郷」に入ろうというところです．本日の午後，khelf の藤原郁弥さんとともに，第26節（およびまとめとして第2章全体も）に注目して Voicy heldio/helwa にて対談精読実況生中継を配信する予定です．リラックスしたおしゃべり回の体裁をとりますが，中身の濃い回となるはずです．精密な英文解釈に加え，英語史研究者の立場から印欧語族とその故郷について縦横無尽に議論したいと思います．
　開始時刻は午後2時頃の予定で，通常配信とプレミアム限定配信の生放送を組み合わせて最長で3時間ほどになる可能性があります．生配信でお聴きになれない方は，後日アーカイヴでも配信しますので，時間のあるときにそちらでゆっくり聴取していただければと思います．こちらの heldio チャンネルをフォローいただきますと，予定通知や開始通知を受け取ることができるようになりますので，ぜひフォローをよろしくお願いいたします（目下フォロワーは5,224名となっています）．また，生配信では投げ込みのコメントや質問等もお待ちしていますので，ぜひお寄せください．
　午後の配信に合わせ，4ページ余りの8段落からなる第26節のうち，最初の3段落を以下に掲載します．残りの部分を合わせた本節全文については，プレミアム限定配信にて共有いたします（できれば本書を入手していただくのがベストです）．

   26. The Home of the Indo-Europeans. It is obvious that if the languages just described represent the progressive differentiation of an original speech, this speech, which we may for convenience call the Indo-European language, must have been spoken by a population somewhere at some time. What can be learned about these people and their early location?
   Concerning their physical character, practically nothing can be discerned. Continuity in language and culture does not imply biological descent. It is not an uncommon phenomenon in history for a people to give up their own language and adopt another. Sometimes they adopt the language of their conquerors, or of those whom they have conquered, or that of a people with whom they have simply become merged in a common territory. The Indo-European languages are spoken today in many cultures that until recently had completely unrelated heritages. To judge by the large variety of people who have spoken these languages from early times, it is quite possible that the people of the original Indo-European community already represented a wide ethnic diversity. Neither can we form any very definite idea of the date at which this people lived as a single, more or less coherent community. The period of their common life must have extended over a considerable stretch of time. It is customary to place the end of their common existence somewhere between 3500 and 2500 B.C.
   With respect to the location of this community at a time shortly before their dispersal, we have at least a basis for inference. To begin with, we may assume that the original home was in that part of the world in which the languages of the family are chiefly to be found today, and we may omit from consideration Africa, Australia, and the American continents because we know that the extension of Indo-European languages in these areas has occurred in historical times. History and its related sciences, anthropology and archaeology, enable us also to eliminate certain other regions, such as the British Isles and the peninsulas of Southern Europe. Early literary tradition occasionally preserves traces of a people at a former stage in their history. The earliest books of the Hindus, for example, the Vedas, show an acquaintance with the Indus but not with the Ganges, indicating that the Indo-Europeans entered India from the northwest. In general, we may be fairly sure that the only regions in which it is reasonable to seek the original home of the Indo-European family are the mainland of Europe and the western part of Asia.

　・ Baugh, Albert C. and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language. 6th ed. London: Routledge, 2013.

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