Indo-Europeans in Inner Asia

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521243049.007

6 - Indo-Europeans in Inner Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

A. K. Narain

Edited by

Denis Sinor

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A. K. Narain: Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
Denis Sinor: Affiliation:
Indiana University

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Summary

No barbarians survived so long and became so famous as those who are conventionally known as the Indo-Europeans. No discovery has created such a mirage as the possibility that so many languages of Europe and Asia are derived from a common origin and that we must look for the original people and their home in antiquity. For more than a century, this pursuit has withstood the challenges of science and prejudice alike. The truth may defy us, but the lure of it is still there. This gift of the comparative philologist is yet to be accepted by the archeologist, and the task of the historian is unenviable. While the original home of the Indo-Europeans remains to be finally settled, the charm of Chinese links with them has not ceased to attract. Perhaps Inner Asia holds the key.

The earliest linguistic remains of the Indo-Europeans in this area date from about the third quarter of the first millenium A.D. This consists of a literature, largely of Indic origin, Buddhistic in content, mostly translations or adaptations of religio-philosophical works, and a few commercial documents. They are written in a variety of the Indian syllabic script known as Brāhmī, remains of which have been recovered in various states of preservation from the ruins in the region of the modern cities of Kucha, Karashahr and Turfan. This linguistic relic, which is demonstrably Indo-European, strangely enough bears close affinity with the Western languages of the so-called “centum” group, rather than with the Indic and Iranian, the so-called “satem,” languages of the geographically contiguous areas.

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia , pp. 151 - 176

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521243049.007 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 1990

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