Cross-disciplinary considerations: ‘hedge’, ‘hull’, ‘fool’, and the triumph of linguistic palaeontology

Koch, John T. (2025) Cross-disciplinary considerations: ‘hedge’, ‘hull’, ‘fool’, and the triumph of linguistic palaeontology. In: Presenting counterpoints to the dominant terrestrial narrative of European prehistory, Maritime Encounters 1. Maritime Encounters, 1 (1). Oxbow Books, Oxford, pp. 191-202. ISBN 979-8-88857-184-2

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Abstract

The archaeogenetic support for the Steppe Hypothesis of the Indo-European homeland lends incidental support to the earlier methods that had led to the same conclusion independent of genetic evidence. Perhaps the chief amongst these is that called ‘linguistic palaeontology’, which is based on inherited vocabulary shared among related languages. Confirmation of linguistic palaeontology’s efficacy opens the way to using this method to locate other reconstructed languages – such as Proto-Celtic and Proto-Germanic – in time, space, and the archaeological record. The study includes case studies of three words: *kaghyo-/ā ‘unsettled enclosure’, *kup-s-o-,*kū̆p- ‘ship’s hull’ < ‘beehive’, and *dhrūto- ‘jester, buffoon’.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	an output of the Maritime Encounters research program 2022-2028, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (Stockholm) grant ref. M21-0018
Uncontrolled Keywords:	historical linguistics, Bronze Age, Celtic languages, Germanic languages
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > C Auxiliary sciences of history (General) D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain D History General and Old World > DL Northern Europe. Scandinavia P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PD Germanic languages Q Science > QH Natural history > QH426 Genetics
Divisions:	Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies
Related URLs:	Organisation Organisation
Depositing User:	John Koch
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2025 13:14
Last Modified:	20 Nov 2025 13:14
URI:	https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/3997

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