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Written in Stone: A Journey Through the Stone Age and the Origins of Modern Language
Witty and erudite, Written in Stone is the first etymology book to reveal how the English language is based on original Stone Age words. Half the world’s population speaks a language that has evolved from a single, prehistoric mother tongue. A mother tongue first spoken in Stone Age times, on the steppes of central Eurasia 6,500 years ago. It was so effective that it flourished for two thousand years. It was a language that spread from the shores of the Black Sea across almost all of Europe and much of Asia. It is the genetic basis of everything we speak and write today―the DNA of language.
Written in Stone combines detective work, mythology, ancient history, archaeology, the roots of society, technology and warfare, and the sheer fascination of words to explore that original mother tongue, sketching the connections woven throughout the immense vocabulary of English―with some surprising results.
In snappy, lively and often very funny chapters, it uncovers the most influential and important words used by our Neolithic ancestors, and shows how they are still in constant use today―the building blocks of all our most common words and phrases.
Written in Stone combines detective work, mythology, ancient history, archaeology, the roots of society, technology and warfare, and the sheer fascination of words to explore that original mother tongue, sketching the connections woven throughout the immense vocabulary of English―with some surprising results.
In snappy, lively and often very funny chapters, it uncovers the most influential and important words used by our Neolithic ancestors, and shows how they are still in constant use today―the building blocks of all our most common words and phrases.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published August 28, 2014
About the author
Christopher Stevens
62 books11 followersChristopher Stevens is a widely published writer and journalist. His biography of Kenneth Williams, Born Brilliant, was abridged as a Radio Four Book of the Week, and shortlisted for the Sheridan Morley Theatre Biography prize. His celebration of the fathers of classic sitcom, Galton & Simpson, was launched at the National Theatre on London's South Bank and led to the premiere performance of a lost comedy masterpiece, The Day Off, which he discovered.
His memoir, A Real Boy, was hailed as "incredibly moving" by the Sun. For the past 15 years, Christopher Stevens has been a senior sub-editor at the Observer, Britain's oldest and most respected Sunday newspaper. He has also written for newspapers and magazines from Hello! to the Telegraph, and been interviewed more than 50 times for television and radio about his books, including keynote appearances on NPR and CNN. - from book bio.
His memoir, A Real Boy, was hailed as "incredibly moving" by the Sun. For the past 15 years, Christopher Stevens has been a senior sub-editor at the Observer, Britain's oldest and most respected Sunday newspaper. He has also written for newspapers and magazines from Hello! to the Telegraph, and been interviewed more than 50 times for television and radio about his books, including keynote appearances on NPR and CNN. - from book bio.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
July 11, 2024
This is not a popular science book on Proto-Indo-European language, as I hoped it would be. Very little is said about how we know what we know about Proto-Indo-European and how historical linguistics works. There is one sentence about Grimm's law (well, maybe two sentences, but that's all). The author begins from a short introduction about ancient Arian people and how their language had sprung out of onomatopoeic roots. This is followed by an extra-short overview of the scientists who contributed to the Proto-Indo-European research. This makes the first chapter. Then follows the main bulk of the book: the author goes through Proto-Indo-European roots using each of them as a springboard into a disjointed etymological hodgepodge, spiced with historical anecdotes and trivia of questionable accuracy.
For example, there are nonsensical statements like "Albert Einstein made geometry obsolete when he proved that two parallel lines can intersect." (Einstein indeed used non-euclidian geometry, but he wasn't the one who discovered it. Besides, this doesn't make geometry obsolete.)
Another bit of trivia: "Before our ancient ancestors discovered the wheel they used sleds to pull heavy weights. Russian peasants still used sleds in 19th century." How are we supposed to understand this? Russian peasants had not discovered the wheel yet or perhaps they loved their sleds so much they rejected carts? Russian peasants did use sleds but in the winter, when the roads were covered with snow (and guess what, not only Russian peasants did). Anyway, Russian peasants had no particular aversion towards wheels.
And so on. After such statements, it is a bit problematic to trust the rest of the content, unless you are already familiar with it from other sources.
Another thing I disliked about the book is the author's pet idea repeated a number of times: "As Proto Indo-European speakers migrated out of their steppes, their language replaced other languages because it was inherently better than what local people spoke." This brings Latin to mind. Was it its linguistic power that made it so prominent in the ancient world? Another piece of wisdom on the same topic: "Proto-Indo-European was so successful because it could build new words from existing words." That sure is powerful. I just need to figure out what human language is unable to do this.
For example, there are nonsensical statements like "Albert Einstein made geometry obsolete when he proved that two parallel lines can intersect." (Einstein indeed used non-euclidian geometry, but he wasn't the one who discovered it. Besides, this doesn't make geometry obsolete.)
Another bit of trivia: "Before our ancient ancestors discovered the wheel they used sleds to pull heavy weights. Russian peasants still used sleds in 19th century." How are we supposed to understand this? Russian peasants had not discovered the wheel yet or perhaps they loved their sleds so much they rejected carts? Russian peasants did use sleds but in the winter, when the roads were covered with snow (and guess what, not only Russian peasants did). Anyway, Russian peasants had no particular aversion towards wheels.
And so on. After such statements, it is a bit problematic to trust the rest of the content, unless you are already familiar with it from other sources.
Another thing I disliked about the book is the author's pet idea repeated a number of times: "As Proto Indo-European speakers migrated out of their steppes, their language replaced other languages because it was inherently better than what local people spoke." This brings Latin to mind. Was it its linguistic power that made it so prominent in the ancient world? Another piece of wisdom on the same topic: "Proto-Indo-European was so successful because it could build new words from existing words." That sure is powerful. I just need to figure out what human language is unable to do this.
October 29, 2016
Disappointing. I was expecting a journalistic overview of linguistic reconstruction. Nothing doing. You get a pretty shallow introductory chapter full of unexamined assumptions and unchallenged assertions about the proto-indo-europeans and what they may or may not have been like. Very problematic, by the way, which I will not go into here.
However, if you'd like to have a reference around with a list of I-E roots, I suppose this could work, but I'd wait till it comes out in paperback. There's probably something more comprehensive out there you could better spend your money on, though. Definitely a waste of my $30.
Might be okay for the back of the toilet.
However, if you'd like to have a reference around with a list of I-E roots, I suppose this could work, but I'd wait till it comes out in paperback. There's probably something more comprehensive out there you could better spend your money on, though. Definitely a waste of my $30.
Might be okay for the back of the toilet.
February 6, 2017
Interesting topic but the book is mostly a relentless instant gratification list of random facts explaining little and annoyingly peppered with awkward jokes and pop-culture references. I'm also surprised how the etymologies are presented as fact and without any caveats of being guesswork or there being any controversy around them.
January 23, 2020
I enjoyed this book a lot, but overall it was underwelming because it didn't make any big connections for me about language and the development thereof. But, I just had a blast reading about etymology! I highly recommend this to anyone who loves words, their meanings, and language in general. It's a really fun book to pick up in between heavier reads.
September 22, 2017
I think I was expecting something different from this book. There was probably less fact and research in these pages, and more opinion and conjecture. And while I enjoyed some of this book, and found parts quite interesting, overall, it just wasn't my favourite investigation into the origins on language.
May 27, 2016
I am always fascinated by the origins of language. This book examines the evolution of Indo-European, language that has underpinned many disparate languages throughout the world, identified by 'back-engineering' - taking a modern concept and tracing it's evolution in reverse to arrive at the origin. (Origin comes down to us from Gn: to beget, for instance; it is involved in beginning, Genesis, genes, generate, homogeneous, genealogy etc In French we have gens, in Latin genus, in Greek gnosis. Whatever comes from something else involves Gn. I always seem to end books like this by wanting my own copy - I could ponder (Pend: to hang) through it for years, probably.......
I did do a double-take early on when I was informed that Ar is the Stone Age word for to plough - Stone Age ploughing? Sounds fishy to me....so I went off to fact check and yes, ploughing did originate (Gn) in the Stone Age. So I settled in to read happily.
Very much recommended to anyone who is fascinated by the etymology of words.
I did do a double-take early on when I was informed that Ar is the Stone Age word for to plough - Stone Age ploughing? Sounds fishy to me....so I went off to fact check and yes, ploughing did originate (Gn) in the Stone Age. So I settled in to read happily.
Very much recommended to anyone who is fascinated by the etymology of words.
November 29, 2015
I see this hasn't been loved by readers. I admit, it's not exactly a read-straight-through book, but more of a browse-a-few-minutes-at-a-time book. And the author will walk a long ways to make a pun or funny wordplay. And it's kind of like a drive-by-shooting method of explaining how our words are related to certain basic proto-Indo-European roots. But I still liked it, and had a lot of fun reading and sharing. We have a number of languages spoken by someone in the family and we found it lots of fun to trace out what we knew about words in them. Still had a great time! Although I think the author might have been more of a fascinated bystander than an actual linguist.
November 26, 2016
Interesting, without being particularly entertaining or enlightening. It is not looking at recent origins to words, but rather trying to source everything back to a VERY ancient proto-language. And I think it's pretty speculative. A lot of guessing going on. Pretty dry, and NOT something you can read more than a few pages at a time. Pick it up and put it down. But just ok.
February 28, 2016
Full of incorrect folk etymologies.
I stopped reading when Stevens claimed "Ephesus" derived from the old IE word for "to suckle." Reality? It probably comes from the Greek "ephesos," or "overseer," though that may be folk etymology. In any case, it does NOT come from where Stevens claims.
I stopped reading when Stevens claimed "Ephesus" derived from the old IE word for "to suckle." Reality? It probably comes from the Greek "ephesos," or "overseer," though that may be folk etymology. In any case, it does NOT come from where Stevens claims.
June 7, 2019
At its heart, this book is a historical dictionary, but of an unusual and striking kind. Rather than seeking to go from English words back to their roots, this particular book's approach is to begin from the words, most of them somewhat primitive, that exist in proto-Indo-European, and then to work their way forward into contemporary words that spring from those roots, at times showing the language modifications that have taken place in the intervening millennia. Obviously, this book was written as an attempt to popularize the history of the Indo-European languages and to appeal to those who already have some degree of interest in the historical linguistics of English not only to the Anglo-Saxon period but to the areas far into prehistory when a group of people who apparently lived in the steppes of what is now the Ukraine and Southern Russia split apart and wandered in various directions to settle Europe, parts of the Middle East, and South Asia and to spread their language and culture. Other books deal with that interesting journey and some of its more fascinating mysteries, but this book seeks to look at the aspects of the language spoken by that group that have endured over the intervening centuries.
The book is about 250 pages or so and is divided by chapters according to the starting letter in transliterated Indo-European. After an introduction the author briefly talks about the stone age words that this book is titled for. Then she immediately goes into the dictionary of known PIE words. A brings us Ak, An, Ank, Ap, and Arg. B brings Bha, Bhal, Bher, Bhleu, Bhrag and Bhur. There are no C words, but there are quite a few with D beginnings, namely Dam, Dha, Dhar, Dik, Diw, Do, Dok, and Dre. A couple of E words, Em and Es, and Fri from F then follow. Gar, Gel, Ghu, Gn, and Gri represent G, Ieh, Neh and Iug deal with yes and no-related words, and Kad, Kap, Kar, Kard, Kas, Ker, Kiv, Kru, Ku, Kwa, and Kwi represent the K words. Lab, Lag, Li, Lubh, and Luh represent L, Ma Mag, Mal, Mei, Men, Mor, and Min are the M-words, and N provides Nek, Nem, and a discussion on PIE numbers. AFter this comes Pa, Pe, Pel, Pend, Per, Pi, Plak, Pod, Prei, and Pu for the P-words, Re, Reg, Ru, and Rud for the R-words, and Sa, Sat, Sed, Spek, Sta, Streg, and various swear words after that. Finally, the author concludes with TAm, Teks, Ten, Ters, Tor, Tu, and Tup, Us, and Wa, Wagh, Wak, War, and Wid, along with some last words, acknowledgments, and incomplete bibliography, and a word list.
What this book attempts, and frequently succeeds in doing is bringing what is thought of as an estoeric and nerdy subject, namely paleolinguistics, and in making it edgy and even perhaps a bit cool. The author particularly enjoys talking about some of the seamier sides of life and engages in the usual sort of speculation about the behavior of people in the stone age and what the language's words has to say about their customs and culture. If you are someone who already has an appreciation of the material discussed here, there is a lot to enjoy and probably at least a few smiles that will be cracked over the author's imaginative discussion of words and how they are related through their primitive roots. As a bonus, one gets plenty of discussion about Grimm's law and various sound shifts within the Germanic and other sub-families of the Indo-European family. And really, what language nerd doesn't enjoy that sort of thing?
The book is about 250 pages or so and is divided by chapters according to the starting letter in transliterated Indo-European. After an introduction the author briefly talks about the stone age words that this book is titled for. Then she immediately goes into the dictionary of known PIE words. A brings us Ak, An, Ank, Ap, and Arg. B brings Bha, Bhal, Bher, Bhleu, Bhrag and Bhur. There are no C words, but there are quite a few with D beginnings, namely Dam, Dha, Dhar, Dik, Diw, Do, Dok, and Dre. A couple of E words, Em and Es, and Fri from F then follow. Gar, Gel, Ghu, Gn, and Gri represent G, Ieh, Neh and Iug deal with yes and no-related words, and Kad, Kap, Kar, Kard, Kas, Ker, Kiv, Kru, Ku, Kwa, and Kwi represent the K words. Lab, Lag, Li, Lubh, and Luh represent L, Ma Mag, Mal, Mei, Men, Mor, and Min are the M-words, and N provides Nek, Nem, and a discussion on PIE numbers. AFter this comes Pa, Pe, Pel, Pend, Per, Pi, Plak, Pod, Prei, and Pu for the P-words, Re, Reg, Ru, and Rud for the R-words, and Sa, Sat, Sed, Spek, Sta, Streg, and various swear words after that. Finally, the author concludes with TAm, Teks, Ten, Ters, Tor, Tu, and Tup, Us, and Wa, Wagh, Wak, War, and Wid, along with some last words, acknowledgments, and incomplete bibliography, and a word list.
What this book attempts, and frequently succeeds in doing is bringing what is thought of as an estoeric and nerdy subject, namely paleolinguistics, and in making it edgy and even perhaps a bit cool. The author particularly enjoys talking about some of the seamier sides of life and engages in the usual sort of speculation about the behavior of people in the stone age and what the language's words has to say about their customs and culture. If you are someone who already has an appreciation of the material discussed here, there is a lot to enjoy and probably at least a few smiles that will be cracked over the author's imaginative discussion of words and how they are related through their primitive roots. As a bonus, one gets plenty of discussion about Grimm's law and various sound shifts within the Germanic and other sub-families of the Indo-European family. And really, what language nerd doesn't enjoy that sort of thing?
September 25, 2023
3.5
This is a fascinating and often mind-boggling guide to how the Indo-European language developed from its palaeolithic roots to what's spoken across Europe today. Some sounds, eg 'hwa' and 'pu', remain unchanged, as do many ancient words - 'halp', for instance. And all those dirty filthy Anglo-Saxon obscenities? They're actually at least 8,000 years old.
I didn't find this a particularly easy read, as there's so much information to take in at once; it's a good toilet read, and that could be the best way to digest this book! At the same time, reading the book at length, with its "sound x gave us word 1, 2, 3, and 4" became reminiscent of the Biblical lists of who begat whom, and oddly incantatory. Each sound acted as a building block to which others could be added in order to form a variety of related new words; seeing how this happens, watching recognisable words blossom from basic elements and letter-shifts is *amazing*: but what blew my mind was seeing how so many words from hundreds, even thousands of years ago, have remained essentially unchanged, despite subtle and not so subtle changes in spelling and meaning.
Another factor in Written In Stone's favour is that it's often very funny, and its use of cultural references to clarify points is invaluable. With that in mind, here are some of the many examples I could've chosen, along with some other favourite examples. The chapter on swear words is worth reading on its own!
* 7 - septm. The seven stars of the constellation the Plough are called "the septentrions" in astronomy, because it derives from the Latin for the seven plough-oxen. I think 'Septentrions' is a gorgeous word and would be a great name for an alien race in Doctor Who.
* 'Pard' - 'fart' - is proof that our palaeolithic ancestors had a rude sense of humour! 'Pard' became 'fart' due to a 'p' to 'f' shift; 'fart' has been English slang for flatulence since Anglo-Saxon times, when the word was 'feortan'.
* "Ars musica" was cheerful Napoleonic era slang for a fart - i.e., the very Worzel Gummidge-ish "A blast on the bum trumpet."
* In Game of Thrones, when Ramsey Bolton enslaves and tortures Theon Greyjoy, usurper to the title of "King in the North", he renames the would-be king 'Reek' when he's finally broken. Ramsey tells Theon it's because he stinks, he 'reeks'. In Tudor times, to play 'rex' (pron 'reex') was to play pranks and japes: very apt for a man playing at being a king.
* Allowing for changes in spelling and pronounciation, in Middle English 'derve' means to wound/hurt; whilst in Anglo-Saxon, 'vaeder' is a variant of 'father' (You can see where this is going). Therefore, the name "Darth Vader" itself gives away a major Star Wars plot twist.
Apart from one very bizarre typo towards the end of the book, this is well worth a gander.
This is a fascinating and often mind-boggling guide to how the Indo-European language developed from its palaeolithic roots to what's spoken across Europe today. Some sounds, eg 'hwa' and 'pu', remain unchanged, as do many ancient words - 'halp', for instance. And all those dirty filthy Anglo-Saxon obscenities? They're actually at least 8,000 years old.
I didn't find this a particularly easy read, as there's so much information to take in at once; it's a good toilet read, and that could be the best way to digest this book! At the same time, reading the book at length, with its "sound x gave us word 1, 2, 3, and 4" became reminiscent of the Biblical lists of who begat whom, and oddly incantatory. Each sound acted as a building block to which others could be added in order to form a variety of related new words; seeing how this happens, watching recognisable words blossom from basic elements and letter-shifts is *amazing*: but what blew my mind was seeing how so many words from hundreds, even thousands of years ago, have remained essentially unchanged, despite subtle and not so subtle changes in spelling and meaning.
Another factor in Written In Stone's favour is that it's often very funny, and its use of cultural references to clarify points is invaluable. With that in mind, here are some of the many examples I could've chosen, along with some other favourite examples. The chapter on swear words is worth reading on its own!
* 7 - septm. The seven stars of the constellation the Plough are called "the septentrions" in astronomy, because it derives from the Latin for the seven plough-oxen. I think 'Septentrions' is a gorgeous word and would be a great name for an alien race in Doctor Who.
* 'Pard' - 'fart' - is proof that our palaeolithic ancestors had a rude sense of humour! 'Pard' became 'fart' due to a 'p' to 'f' shift; 'fart' has been English slang for flatulence since Anglo-Saxon times, when the word was 'feortan'.
* "Ars musica" was cheerful Napoleonic era slang for a fart - i.e., the very Worzel Gummidge-ish "A blast on the bum trumpet."
* In Game of Thrones, when Ramsey Bolton enslaves and tortures Theon Greyjoy, usurper to the title of "King in the North", he renames the would-be king 'Reek' when he's finally broken. Ramsey tells Theon it's because he stinks, he 'reeks'. In Tudor times, to play 'rex' (pron 'reex') was to play pranks and japes: very apt for a man playing at being a king.
* Allowing for changes in spelling and pronounciation, in Middle English 'derve' means to wound/hurt; whilst in Anglo-Saxon, 'vaeder' is a variant of 'father' (You can see where this is going). Therefore, the name "Darth Vader" itself gives away a major Star Wars plot twist.
Apart from one very bizarre typo towards the end of the book, this is well worth a gander.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 30, 2017
The search for the Mother Tongue has been going on for a long time.
Babel is an attempt to explain the diversity of languages spoken by man. Linguists and anthropologists have been especially intrigued by the subject.
Indo-European, the language addressed in Written In Stone, is not the one and only original language. But it is one believed by many to be the root of most European languages, save for a few exceptions such as Basque.
Stevens gives a brief history of the search for the origin of this language and the people who spoke it, then plunges right into examples of the language and how it relates to others, going right from ak to wid.
A majority of the examples make perfect sense. While others stretch the imagination. Still, can't blame the man for wanting to make his case. And don't be surprised if some of his anecdotes don't have you laughing out loud.
For those who want to dig more seriously into the subject, Stevens provides a bibliography.
If you're a word geek like me, you'll find this little book interesting. Otherwise--well, I still think you'll find it interesting.
Babel is an attempt to explain the diversity of languages spoken by man. Linguists and anthropologists have been especially intrigued by the subject.
Indo-European, the language addressed in Written In Stone, is not the one and only original language. But it is one believed by many to be the root of most European languages, save for a few exceptions such as Basque.
Stevens gives a brief history of the search for the origin of this language and the people who spoke it, then plunges right into examples of the language and how it relates to others, going right from ak to wid.
A majority of the examples make perfect sense. While others stretch the imagination. Still, can't blame the man for wanting to make his case. And don't be surprised if some of his anecdotes don't have you laughing out loud.
For those who want to dig more seriously into the subject, Stevens provides a bibliography.
If you're a word geek like me, you'll find this little book interesting. Otherwise--well, I still think you'll find it interesting.
February 24, 2017
Kingdoms have risen and fallen in the time it took me to get through this book. I too had the seemingly common misunderstanding that this book would be in some way informative about the construction and evolution of Indo-European languages, instead of the anecdotal dictionary it actually was. Perhaps that's my fault, but opportunities were severely missed.
The author will go a long way to make a pun or a pop culture reference that still usually isn't funny when it's not entirely nonsensical (readers may recall the Pythagorean theorem joke). At least one was recycled from elsewhere in the book. Words are strung together awkwardly, half the time with little to no guidance on how they evolved to get there. On page 230, a sentence begins with 4 question marks rather than any meaningful connection to the preceding sentence, hopefully meaning at least I'm not the most lost participant in this reader-book experience.
It's just not worth it.
The author will go a long way to make a pun or a pop culture reference that still usually isn't funny when it's not entirely nonsensical (readers may recall the Pythagorean theorem joke). At least one was recycled from elsewhere in the book. Words are strung together awkwardly, half the time with little to no guidance on how they evolved to get there. On page 230, a sentence begins with 4 question marks rather than any meaningful connection to the preceding sentence, hopefully meaning at least I'm not the most lost participant in this reader-book experience.
It's just not worth it.
October 20, 2017
Since when "menas" in Lithuanian is "understanding?" The closest meaning to Latin "mens" probably is "mąstymas", so it's probably far more complex than you think, where "understanding" - "supratimas" or "mind" - "protas" have somewhat different word roots with "mąstymas".
And since when "rabota" (Russian/ Ukrainian) is "forced labor"? It's still just labor.
Memetics, unlike genetics, probably can't be reconstructed from information available today. Not enough data, just some coincidences or several relicts.
OK, despite those minor omits, it was interesting, but don't expect some history/ story to be told, there is none (see above).
P.S. Don't use audio here.
And since when "rabota" (Russian/ Ukrainian) is "forced labor"? It's still just labor.
Memetics, unlike genetics, probably can't be reconstructed from information available today. Not enough data, just some coincidences or several relicts.
OK, despite those minor omits, it was interesting, but don't expect some history/ story to be told, there is none (see above).
P.S. Don't use audio here.
February 26, 2016
Did you know that "mal" means bad? And that "small" is actually a contraction of "It's small," as in "small animal right here not as good as bigger animal over there?"
Now you learned one of the five interesting things in this book.
Now you learned one of the five interesting things in this book.
October 22, 2016
Fascinating dip into the origins of modern languages. Not a book to be read cover to cover but definitely worth browsing through. Author has a nice dry wit that shows up here and there in the narrative. Nice to find the linguistic origin of Darth Vader.
February 23, 2019
I'm sad to say that this is the worst book I have read in years.
It is basically a word list strung together with awkwardly stuctured anecdotes and pop culture references. It's very annoying to read.
I can put up with that if it were not for the sheer ignorance of the author on the very subject he wrote a book about! I expected an introduction to Indo-European languages: how PIE was recontructed, archaeology, Grimm's Law, the High German constonant shift etc.
None of that. Just a list of mostly very far-fetched etymologies. Many of which just seem to have been made up by the author himself because I cannot find them in any reputable source. It is as if the author heard of a certain root word and then sat in his chair with a notebook and a coffee thinking of as many words that also contained components such as 'pe' or 'ku' as he could.
His supposed etymolgies for 'penis' and 'OK' for example are just so far-fetched and not based on any sort of evidence.
The book has a few main points. Most of which are not even right.
He has this bizarre idea that Indo-European languages were so successful because they were 'logical'.... No serious scholar believes this.
"One of the factors that drove Indo-European languages across the planet was the way new words built on old, letter by letter. It wasn't so much a mother tongue, more on construction kit." (p. 168)
Like literally every language??
He containtly writes down what early Indo-Europeans allegedly said but no where does he say how to pronounce it. It starts with the very first sentences: "Say the word pu. Then say say pe (...)"
Pu as poo, pew, pú? Is the P aspirated? A basic introduction to IPA would be useful but I imagine that the author doesn't know what that is.
Some other exerpts that made my toes curl:
- The author constanly refers to Proto-/early Germanic as 'North European'..
Northern Europe also had Celtic, Balto-Slavic and non-Indo-European languages!
"In Northern Europe this and this langauge change happened" is so vague.
"With the Celtic shift from 'p' to 'f', puk became fuck, (...)" (p.213)
I think he means Germanic.. Elsewhere he confuses Latin for French, describes language changes in French that were in fact Germanic etc. Very unprofessional.
"Two millennia later, us turned into pounds, shillings, and pence. That's because the medieval English term for men who hailed from the East was Easterling ... and in the money markets of thirteenth-century London, the Easterlings were masters of the universe. They ran monopolies in wood, wheat, fur and flax; their naval strength was so powerful that they wiped out all pirates in the Baltic, and they practically ruled Scandinavia. They were Viking financiers, and it was the Easterling money that mattered in London ... hence, sterling." (p. 242)
I have never heard of this origin before and once again fail to find any reference of it elsewhere.
And I assume he is describing the Hanseatic League (established in the 14th century) but what's up with those Vikings that were not a thing anymore at that point?
Then there is the absolute ignorance when it comes to biology and taxonomy:
"The smallest family of of garden birds are tits - blue tits, great tits, coal tits and so on. In Old Welsh, any small bird is a titlingr. The Icelandic Tittr is a titmouse, a bird of the Chickadee family." (p. 218)
Hardly anything of this is true.
1) The tit family (Paridae) is not the smallest family of garden birds both by the number of members or by the physical size of its members.
2) There are no titmice on Iceland. Titmouse is nowadays mostly used for American tits, not the European ones that occur on Iceland.
3) Chikadee family? All these birds are still in the Paridae family. Chikadees are American members of the genus Poecile within this family.
4) The etymologies are highly questionable.
and even worse:
"In Latin a bird that calls out at dawn is gallus, the cockerel. Turkeys, grouse and pheasants are galliform birds - and ostriches too. In fact the classification galliformes applies to any bird that pecks its feed off the ground, Woodcocks are members of the gallinaceous family (...)" (p. 74)
Where do I even start?
No ostriches are NOT galliform birds. Galliform birds are the chickens, grouse, turkeys etc.
No, that is not how taxonomic classification works.
Woodcocks are members of the the Scolopacidae family. "Gallinaceous" is an adjective relating to galliform birds (which woodcocks are not).
The bit that states that the orangutan was described by Europeans in de Middle Ages when it was in fact the 18th century was also painful to read or the bit where he makes it seem as if Altaic is an accepted superfamily. Or the bit where he incorrectly translates Dutch and Afrikaans words. Or, or...
I could go on for a while but I'm too tired.
It is basically a word list strung together with awkwardly stuctured anecdotes and pop culture references. It's very annoying to read.
I can put up with that if it were not for the sheer ignorance of the author on the very subject he wrote a book about! I expected an introduction to Indo-European languages: how PIE was recontructed, archaeology, Grimm's Law, the High German constonant shift etc.
None of that. Just a list of mostly very far-fetched etymologies. Many of which just seem to have been made up by the author himself because I cannot find them in any reputable source. It is as if the author heard of a certain root word and then sat in his chair with a notebook and a coffee thinking of as many words that also contained components such as 'pe' or 'ku' as he could.
His supposed etymolgies for 'penis' and 'OK' for example are just so far-fetched and not based on any sort of evidence.
The book has a few main points. Most of which are not even right.
He has this bizarre idea that Indo-European languages were so successful because they were 'logical'.... No serious scholar believes this.
"One of the factors that drove Indo-European languages across the planet was the way new words built on old, letter by letter. It wasn't so much a mother tongue, more on construction kit." (p. 168)
Like literally every language??
He containtly writes down what early Indo-Europeans allegedly said but no where does he say how to pronounce it. It starts with the very first sentences: "Say the word pu. Then say say pe (...)"
Pu as poo, pew, pú? Is the P aspirated? A basic introduction to IPA would be useful but I imagine that the author doesn't know what that is.
Some other exerpts that made my toes curl:
- The author constanly refers to Proto-/early Germanic as 'North European'..
Northern Europe also had Celtic, Balto-Slavic and non-Indo-European languages!
"In Northern Europe this and this langauge change happened" is so vague.
"With the Celtic shift from 'p' to 'f', puk became fuck, (...)" (p.213)
I think he means Germanic.. Elsewhere he confuses Latin for French, describes language changes in French that were in fact Germanic etc. Very unprofessional.
"Two millennia later, us turned into pounds, shillings, and pence. That's because the medieval English term for men who hailed from the East was Easterling ... and in the money markets of thirteenth-century London, the Easterlings were masters of the universe. They ran monopolies in wood, wheat, fur and flax; their naval strength was so powerful that they wiped out all pirates in the Baltic, and they practically ruled Scandinavia. They were Viking financiers, and it was the Easterling money that mattered in London ... hence, sterling." (p. 242)
I have never heard of this origin before and once again fail to find any reference of it elsewhere.
And I assume he is describing the Hanseatic League (established in the 14th century) but what's up with those Vikings that were not a thing anymore at that point?
Then there is the absolute ignorance when it comes to biology and taxonomy:
"The smallest family of of garden birds are tits - blue tits, great tits, coal tits and so on. In Old Welsh, any small bird is a titlingr. The Icelandic Tittr is a titmouse, a bird of the Chickadee family." (p. 218)
Hardly anything of this is true.
1) The tit family (Paridae) is not the smallest family of garden birds both by the number of members or by the physical size of its members.
2) There are no titmice on Iceland. Titmouse is nowadays mostly used for American tits, not the European ones that occur on Iceland.
3) Chikadee family? All these birds are still in the Paridae family. Chikadees are American members of the genus Poecile within this family.
4) The etymologies are highly questionable.
and even worse:
"In Latin a bird that calls out at dawn is gallus, the cockerel. Turkeys, grouse and pheasants are galliform birds - and ostriches too. In fact the classification galliformes applies to any bird that pecks its feed off the ground, Woodcocks are members of the gallinaceous family (...)" (p. 74)
Where do I even start?
No ostriches are NOT galliform birds. Galliform birds are the chickens, grouse, turkeys etc.
No, that is not how taxonomic classification works.
Woodcocks are members of the the Scolopacidae family. "Gallinaceous" is an adjective relating to galliform birds (which woodcocks are not).
The bit that states that the orangutan was described by Europeans in de Middle Ages when it was in fact the 18th century was also painful to read or the bit where he makes it seem as if Altaic is an accepted superfamily. Or the bit where he incorrectly translates Dutch and Afrikaans words. Or, or...
I could go on for a while but I'm too tired.
September 27, 2019
I highly recommend "Written in Stone" by Christopher Stevens to anyone interested in language, well Indo-European languages. Each of the 17 chapters gives us on average 5 Indo-European words (verbs); for each word, the author tells stories or weaves narratives to illustrate the English words that come from those ancient words. Sometimes the narratives are too long or a bit silly, but it's still fascinating to see how so many hundreds of English words (his examples) have roots that go back 6,000 to 8,000 years. Take, for example, the Indo-European words "bhleu" to blow. Steven writes, "Latin softened the "bh" to "f": the verb flier means too flow. It gives us fluent, fluid, and flush, as well as fluctuate, which means flowing back and forth....To have influence is to flow through the corridors of power. Then there's affluent, which is overflowing with money..." You get the point. Sometimes, one has to think about the connection between the ancient and modern meanings (here, the shift from "blowing" to "flowing.") But usually, it's not rocket science. To me, at least, reading this book was about the best nerdy fun I've had in a while.
August 11, 2018
While this book contains many fascinating nuggets of information, it is also hugely irritating to read. It’s like one long, uninterrupted passage seemingly detailing what the author reckons is true. I’m glad I’ve read it, for the basic etymological info that I’ve gleaned, but at no point could I say I was really enjoying it. There are also basic factual (non-etymological) errors which frustrated me.
All in all, I don’t think the author had an audience in mind while he was writing. At points it feels like it’s written for children but it definitely is not. If you want a detailed history of indo-European etymology, this ain’t that. If you want a basic rundown of where a bunch of our words come from, and also you like really consistently poor attempts at humour, this is the book for you.
All in all, I don’t think the author had an audience in mind while he was writing. At points it feels like it’s written for children but it definitely is not. If you want a detailed history of indo-European etymology, this ain’t that. If you want a basic rundown of where a bunch of our words come from, and also you like really consistently poor attempts at humour, this is the book for you.
October 22, 2018
Where do modern languages come from? We speak French in France, English in England, Chinese in China, Japanese in Japan, and so forth. If we go back only several thousand years, none of these languages were spoken in their respective countries and they didn’t exist anywhere in the world. Where did they all come from?
By examining the background of the common words we use today, words that have survived for thousands of years, researchers have shown how integrated language is.
Christopher Steven’s charming and at times laugh out loud book, deconstructs many of the words we all use frequently and traces their origins back to their Indo-European roots. I loved this book.
By examining the background of the common words we use today, words that have survived for thousands of years, researchers have shown how integrated language is.
Christopher Steven’s charming and at times laugh out loud book, deconstructs many of the words we all use frequently and traces their origins back to their Indo-European roots. I loved this book.
March 11, 2019
I was expecting a more academic perspective. However, the author is a journalist and not a linguist. A bibliography is included, but no specific references. The author attempts demonstrate connections between English words and phrases to other Indo-European languages through a witty narrative. Some of it is interesting or amusing. Other parts are just obvious if you are a native or fluent English speaker and have an understanding of root words, prefixes and suffixes. Based on similarities between words etymologists extrapolate back to a possible Proto-Indo-European root. Next time, I'll chose a more scientific approach to this topic.
October 28, 2020
Finally finished this one. It is a fascinating concept, to get listed how the Sanskrit influenced, permeates, our current use of Indo-European language, and at the same time, doing this by listing sounds and then listing all related current sounds every now and then failed to keep my attention. I would have been served by longer, coherent and focusing paragraphs about the Sanskrit language in general, without being bombarded with examples of today's survival of the old roots. In the end, I took away quite a lot from this book, and it was even funny here and there, but it demolished my attention span by its very approach every time. I read this one in a for me unusual 30+ sittings, I gues.
September 14, 2023
Not so much a book as a string of tidbits about related words in more or less alphabetical order, highlighted with mild humor and anecdotes reflecting a light approach to research.
This is one for the shelf next to the toilet, rather than something to sit down and read with your trousers on. It’s certainly not going to tell you much about proto-Indo-European, much less how linguists study Stone Age languages.
This is one for the shelf next to the toilet, rather than something to sit down and read with your trousers on. It’s certainly not going to tell you much about proto-Indo-European, much less how linguists study Stone Age languages.
December 20, 2023
This is the first book that I've DNF'd in a while. It was by no means horrendous, but once you'd read the first chapter, you'd read the whole thing. No new ideas were really being introduced and it was repetitive. I also felt like a lot of guesswork was being done. Naturally, theorizing was going to happen when it comes to the genesis of language, but the author never really acknowledges what he is saying as anything but irrefutable data.
October 28, 2016
Definitely fun to read in snippets (an entry or two a day or so) though his glib style would quickly grow tedious if you tried to read much more than that in a single session--it feels more like a collection of quips, one-liners and mnemonics (which, I gather the author has also written) than a coherent narrative. Still,overall, worth it.
January 21, 2019
I only consider myself an armchair linguist/etymologist at best, but too many times did I think "This can't possibly be right" while reading this. The style and format is a bit tedious. It took me a lot longer to finish than I had anticipated.
Look, if it gets amateurs interested in the subject, more power to Stevens, but there have to be better, more rigorous treatments.
Look, if it gets amateurs interested in the subject, more power to Stevens, but there have to be better, more rigorous treatments.
January 15, 2024
I'm fascinated by this topic and had no idea what to expect when I picked up several titles from the local library.
Not your typical novel, this book appears to be a compendium (What is the origin of that word??) of random thoughts, ideas, suppositions, and lore - all very fun, but my expectation was to be more of a foot-noted text. I'll keep looking.
Not your typical novel, this book appears to be a compendium (What is the origin of that word??) of random thoughts, ideas, suppositions, and lore - all very fun, but my expectation was to be more of a foot-noted text. I'll keep looking.
June 24, 2017
This was an interesting, light-weight read rather than an in depth look at Proto-Indo European and was really more suited to dipping in and out of than sitting down and reading from cover to cover. An entertaining overview and not too scholarly at all.
June 7, 2022
All in all a very educational book but sometimes it just felt a little too much like reading out of a dictionary. The primary focus was on English, Latin and Greek because that obviously was their target audience but I would have appreciated having more diversity in the examples used.
April 17, 2024
took quite a bit of effort to get through even though it really is split up into bite-sized chunks and is quite digestible, but it’s definitely like a dictionary and has much less story to no story to grasp onto. was quite a slog getting through the last 3/5ths.
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