Where did our language start?

Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Mar 5 2024 • 21 mins

971. Linguists have traced modern languages like English and Sanskrit back thousands of years to a single Proto-Indo-European source. This week, we explore their detective work and the debates around the origins of the ancestral tongue.

This piece was written by Kurt Kleiner, a freelance science and technology writer living in Toronto. It originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, a digital publication dedicated to making scientific knowledge accessible to all. Explore the latest at knowablemagazine.org.

| Edited transcript with links: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/indo-european/transcript

| Grammarpalooza (Get texts from Mignon!): https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.

| Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates.

| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.

| Peeve Wars card game.

| Grammar Girl books.

| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.