Traveling Voices - The diachronic development of the voice system in Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic branches from a migrational perspective
A dialogue among biologists, linguists, archaeologists, and historians over the reconstruction of the prehistoric past of Indo-European peoples has just started with the recent results in the ancient DNA and isotope analyses. This proposed project is intended to supply more linguistic support to the restoration of the contacts and the migration routes of the Indo-European peoples, particularly of the Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic branches. Their migration process has been controversial, since the Baltic and Slavic branches share common traits with the Indo-Iranian branch (e.g., satem-assibilation of PIE palato-velars), while they share common linguistic features also with the Germanic branch (e.g., the oblique case markers with *-m- corresponding to *-bh- elsewhere). In fact, the ancient genetic analysis suggests migration routes in which the Baltic, Slavic, Germanic, and Indo-Iranian branches migrated from the location of Yamnaya-culture westwards together, however, Indo-Iranian alone returned eastwards. The controversy among those languages must reflect these peculiar migration routes. I intend to investigate the prehistoric development of the voice system of these language branches, and clarify the process in light of their aforementioned migration processes. The expected results will provide not only linguistic evidence for the restoration of the migration processes of Indo-European peoples, but also with a typologically interesting case study on the voice system.
Final report
Final Report
Traveling Voices — The diachronic development of the voice system in Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic branches from a migrational perspective
Purpose and development of the project
The project Traveling Voices investigates the diachronic development of verbal voice systems in the Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic branches of the Indo-European family. Its main aim is to clarify how the inherited voice system from Proto-Indo-European evolved after the branching of these languages and how these developments relate to prehistoric population movements in Eurasia.
Proto-Indo-European featured a mediopassive voice system in which the agent participates in or is affected by the action. While this system is well preserved in several branches such as Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, and Greek, its evolution in Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic remains less understood. The project therefore addressed three central questions:
1. How did the inherited voice system develop in these branches?
2. To what extent are observed changes shared innovations or results of language contact?
3. Are these linguistic developments compatible with current models of prehistoric migration?
During the project, the research framework was broadened to further integrate social and anthropological aspects.
Implementation
The project combined historical-comparative methods with multidisciplinary insights. Data
from Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic languages were analyzed with focus on verbal
morphology, particularly remnants of the mediopassive system. Comparative work targeted thematic and athematic mediopassive formations and their reflexes in daughter languages.
The linguistic investigation was enriched by discussions with specialists in archaeogenetics and archaeology to situate linguistic developments within broader prehistoric population movements. Research results were disseminated through international conferences and workshops on Indo-European linguistics, maintaining dialogue with experts on language contact and migration.
Main results and conclusions
This research showed the possibility that the loss of the inflectional mediopassive was later than usually assumed. It is noteworthy that the relics of the thematic- and athematic-type mediopassive conjugations are distinguishable in Proto-Germanic, Proto-Baltic, and Proto-Slavic.
As is well known, some of the descendants of the PIE inflectional mediopassive survive in specific verbal endings, while others were reinterpreted or replaced by reflexive or periphrastic passive constructions. This project showed that the replacement of the inflectional mediopassive involved the reinterpretation of the mediopassive ending as the active ending in Baltic [cf. publication 2]. These findings indicate that the restructuring of voice systems was branch-specific, shaped by internal developments. The language contacts with the Uralic branches and unknown local languages in Fennoscandia could have contributed to the process (considering the absolute chronology), but this is hard to prove.
At the planning phase of the project, it was expected that the anomalous Baltic 2nd person singular ending of the thematic conjugation might be related to the restructuring process of the voice system at least in the Baltic branch. However, the investigation revealed that the Baltic ending is more likely to reflect the influence from the s-future stem formation, where the ending could be easily reinterpreted from *-s]stem-sei]ending ? *-s]stem-ei]ending. This line of approach is strengthened by the fact that this anomalous 2nd person thematic ending *-ei only appears in Baltic, where the s-future became extremely productive (cf. s-future is only preserved in participial forms in Slavic, and was completely lost in Germanic). This resulted in the publication [3].
Along the way of the investigation in the relics of the PIE inflectional mediopassive, the morphological history and the development of the accentuation pattern of the verb kláusti, klausýti, and their related forms was reconstructed. This small investigation resulted in the publication [4].
New research questions / dimensions
The project opened several new avenues for investigation. During the investigation in the migration of the Indo-European ancestries, it became inevitable to consider their prehistoric contact with the Uralic branches that started to spread in northern Eurasia ca 2000 BCE, i.e., the Bronze Age. The Uralic expansion around that time is archaeologically highly relevant to the emerging trading network called Seima-Turbino translcultural network. Archaeogenomic evidence indicates Siberian gene flow emerging in the area at the same time. I established a collaboration with an archaeogenomicist Natalija Kashuba, PhD. (Uppsala), and deepened my knowledge in the demographic prehistory with her help. The efforts resulted in a Fellowship at SCAS (fall 2024), where I investigated in the cultural aspects of the Baltic – Finno-Saamic contact from social and anthropological aspects, such like commensality. The research resulted in the publication [1].
Dissemination and collaboration
Results were disseminated via peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations,
academic seminars, and my personal website (https://swanrad.ch/yy/index.html). Presentations were delivered at conferences in Basel, Cologne, Vilnius, Stockholm and Uppsala.
Discussions with the team members of the research programme “Languages and Myths of Prehistory (LAMP)” at Stockholm University / Center for the Huan Past / SCAS contributed significantly to the interdisciplinary perspective of the project. Interdisciplinary collaboration with Natalija Kashuba at Uppsala University directed me to the topics of cultural / demographic / linguistic contacts with Uralic speaking populations in Fennoscandia through Seima-Turbino translcultural network. During my residence at SCAS, I established another collaboration with a Uralic linguist Sampsa Holopainen, PhD. (Helsinki). The collaboration with him is now leading us to the start-up of a Nordic network for early to mid career researchers. We will continue our investigation in the language and cultural contact in Fennoscandia in the (socio)linguistics, archaeological, and anthropological perspectives.
Publications
1 “Working and Eating Together — Commensality in the life of Early Bronze Age peoples in Contacts in the post Seima-Turbino Transcultural Complex.” To appear in International Journal of Diachronic Linguistics and Linguistic Reconstruction (forthcoming).
2 "A case study on the Lith. sùkti-type verb – a back-formation of active paradigms from the lost mediopassives." To appear in the proceedings of the XVII. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft (forthcoming).
3 “The simple thematic present ending in the 2nd person singular in Baltic.” Journal of
Indo-European Studies 51 (1–2), 2023, 147–164.
4 “The prehistory of kláusti, klausýti, and their related forms revisited.” Lietuviu kalba 17, 2022, 49–60.
5 Dataset: https://swanrad.ch/yy/documents/new-Balto-Slavic-Germanic.pdf
Talks
• "Working and Eating Together — Some aspects of the life of Early Bronze Age peoples in Contacts in post-Seima-Turbino-Transcultural-Complex Community",
December 10th, 2024, Baltic Seminar, Stockholm University.
• "Baltic kinship terms in Finno-Ugric, Indo-European kinship terms and their family structure", w. Axel Palmér,
November 27th, 2024, Mini-Seminar, Center for the Human Past.
• "Working and Eating Together — Some Aspects of the Life of Early Bronze Age Peoples in Contacts in Seima-Turbino Transcultural Complex",
October 8th, 2024, SCAS seminar, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.
• "A case study on Lith. sùkti-type verbs — an investigation in descendants of the lost mediopassives"
September 10th, 2024, Fachtagung der indogermanischen Gesellschaft, University of Basel. [presentation slides]
• "The simple thematic present ending in the 2nd person singular in East Baltic"
September 13th, 2023, Arbeitstagung der indogermanischen Gesellschaft , University of Köln.
• "The 3rd person thematic ending in Baltic"
November 30th, 2022, Indo-European Seminar, Uppsala University.
• "The Baltic verbal endings - what happened to them while traveling from the IE homeland"
September 22nd, 2022, Tarptautine Kazimiero Bugos konferencija, Vilnius University.
• "Dar karta apie kláusti, klausýti ir jiems giminingu formu priešistore (Examining once again the prehistory of kláusti, klausýti, and their related forms)"
May 27th, 2022, 3-ioji tarptautine hibridine Prano Skardžiaus konferencija, Vilnius.
• "Introducing Traveling Voices — The diachronic development of the voice system in the Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic branches from a migrational perspective"
March 23rd, 2022, The Next Step — Shaping the Future of Indo-European Studies, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.
Traveling Voices — The diachronic development of the voice system in Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic branches from a migrational perspective
Purpose and development of the project
The project Traveling Voices investigates the diachronic development of verbal voice systems in the Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic branches of the Indo-European family. Its main aim is to clarify how the inherited voice system from Proto-Indo-European evolved after the branching of these languages and how these developments relate to prehistoric population movements in Eurasia.
Proto-Indo-European featured a mediopassive voice system in which the agent participates in or is affected by the action. While this system is well preserved in several branches such as Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, and Greek, its evolution in Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic remains less understood. The project therefore addressed three central questions:
1. How did the inherited voice system develop in these branches?
2. To what extent are observed changes shared innovations or results of language contact?
3. Are these linguistic developments compatible with current models of prehistoric migration?
During the project, the research framework was broadened to further integrate social and anthropological aspects.
Implementation
The project combined historical-comparative methods with multidisciplinary insights. Data
from Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic languages were analyzed with focus on verbal
morphology, particularly remnants of the mediopassive system. Comparative work targeted thematic and athematic mediopassive formations and their reflexes in daughter languages.
The linguistic investigation was enriched by discussions with specialists in archaeogenetics and archaeology to situate linguistic developments within broader prehistoric population movements. Research results were disseminated through international conferences and workshops on Indo-European linguistics, maintaining dialogue with experts on language contact and migration.
Main results and conclusions
This research showed the possibility that the loss of the inflectional mediopassive was later than usually assumed. It is noteworthy that the relics of the thematic- and athematic-type mediopassive conjugations are distinguishable in Proto-Germanic, Proto-Baltic, and Proto-Slavic.
As is well known, some of the descendants of the PIE inflectional mediopassive survive in specific verbal endings, while others were reinterpreted or replaced by reflexive or periphrastic passive constructions. This project showed that the replacement of the inflectional mediopassive involved the reinterpretation of the mediopassive ending as the active ending in Baltic [cf. publication 2]. These findings indicate that the restructuring of voice systems was branch-specific, shaped by internal developments. The language contacts with the Uralic branches and unknown local languages in Fennoscandia could have contributed to the process (considering the absolute chronology), but this is hard to prove.
At the planning phase of the project, it was expected that the anomalous Baltic 2nd person singular ending of the thematic conjugation might be related to the restructuring process of the voice system at least in the Baltic branch. However, the investigation revealed that the Baltic ending is more likely to reflect the influence from the s-future stem formation, where the ending could be easily reinterpreted from *-s]stem-sei]ending ? *-s]stem-ei]ending. This line of approach is strengthened by the fact that this anomalous 2nd person thematic ending *-ei only appears in Baltic, where the s-future became extremely productive (cf. s-future is only preserved in participial forms in Slavic, and was completely lost in Germanic). This resulted in the publication [3].
Along the way of the investigation in the relics of the PIE inflectional mediopassive, the morphological history and the development of the accentuation pattern of the verb kláusti, klausýti, and their related forms was reconstructed. This small investigation resulted in the publication [4].
New research questions / dimensions
The project opened several new avenues for investigation. During the investigation in the migration of the Indo-European ancestries, it became inevitable to consider their prehistoric contact with the Uralic branches that started to spread in northern Eurasia ca 2000 BCE, i.e., the Bronze Age. The Uralic expansion around that time is archaeologically highly relevant to the emerging trading network called Seima-Turbino translcultural network. Archaeogenomic evidence indicates Siberian gene flow emerging in the area at the same time. I established a collaboration with an archaeogenomicist Natalija Kashuba, PhD. (Uppsala), and deepened my knowledge in the demographic prehistory with her help. The efforts resulted in a Fellowship at SCAS (fall 2024), where I investigated in the cultural aspects of the Baltic – Finno-Saamic contact from social and anthropological aspects, such like commensality. The research resulted in the publication [1].
Dissemination and collaboration
Results were disseminated via peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations,
academic seminars, and my personal website (https://swanrad.ch/yy/index.html). Presentations were delivered at conferences in Basel, Cologne, Vilnius, Stockholm and Uppsala.
Discussions with the team members of the research programme “Languages and Myths of Prehistory (LAMP)” at Stockholm University / Center for the Huan Past / SCAS contributed significantly to the interdisciplinary perspective of the project. Interdisciplinary collaboration with Natalija Kashuba at Uppsala University directed me to the topics of cultural / demographic / linguistic contacts with Uralic speaking populations in Fennoscandia through Seima-Turbino translcultural network. During my residence at SCAS, I established another collaboration with a Uralic linguist Sampsa Holopainen, PhD. (Helsinki). The collaboration with him is now leading us to the start-up of a Nordic network for early to mid career researchers. We will continue our investigation in the language and cultural contact in Fennoscandia in the (socio)linguistics, archaeological, and anthropological perspectives.
Publications
1 “Working and Eating Together — Commensality in the life of Early Bronze Age peoples in Contacts in the post Seima-Turbino Transcultural Complex.” To appear in International Journal of Diachronic Linguistics and Linguistic Reconstruction (forthcoming).
2 "A case study on the Lith. sùkti-type verb – a back-formation of active paradigms from the lost mediopassives." To appear in the proceedings of the XVII. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft (forthcoming).
3 “The simple thematic present ending in the 2nd person singular in Baltic.” Journal of
Indo-European Studies 51 (1–2), 2023, 147–164.
4 “The prehistory of kláusti, klausýti, and their related forms revisited.” Lietuviu kalba 17, 2022, 49–60.
5 Dataset: https://swanrad.ch/yy/documents/new-Balto-Slavic-Germanic.pdf
Talks
• "Working and Eating Together — Some aspects of the life of Early Bronze Age peoples in Contacts in post-Seima-Turbino-Transcultural-Complex Community",
December 10th, 2024, Baltic Seminar, Stockholm University.
• "Baltic kinship terms in Finno-Ugric, Indo-European kinship terms and their family structure", w. Axel Palmér,
November 27th, 2024, Mini-Seminar, Center for the Human Past.
• "Working and Eating Together — Some Aspects of the Life of Early Bronze Age Peoples in Contacts in Seima-Turbino Transcultural Complex",
October 8th, 2024, SCAS seminar, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.
• "A case study on Lith. sùkti-type verbs — an investigation in descendants of the lost mediopassives"
September 10th, 2024, Fachtagung der indogermanischen Gesellschaft, University of Basel. [presentation slides]
• "The simple thematic present ending in the 2nd person singular in East Baltic"
September 13th, 2023, Arbeitstagung der indogermanischen Gesellschaft , University of Köln.
• "The 3rd person thematic ending in Baltic"
November 30th, 2022, Indo-European Seminar, Uppsala University.
• "The Baltic verbal endings - what happened to them while traveling from the IE homeland"
September 22nd, 2022, Tarptautine Kazimiero Bugos konferencija, Vilnius University.
• "Dar karta apie kláusti, klausýti ir jiems giminingu formu priešistore (Examining once again the prehistory of kláusti, klausýti, and their related forms)"
May 27th, 2022, 3-ioji tarptautine hibridine Prano Skardžiaus konferencija, Vilnius.
• "Introducing Traveling Voices — The diachronic development of the voice system in the Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic branches from a migrational perspective"
March 23rd, 2022, The Next Step — Shaping the Future of Indo-European Studies, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.