ProtoLaura Spinney
Proto
by Laura Spinney · first published 2025
5mentions
4recommended by
5HN commenters
2025–2026first – last mentioned
80% recommend20% neutral
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A good book on this is Proto by Laura Spinney, it covers all the branches of Proto-Indo-European and also postulates that the entire family may have started from as few as a hundred speakers who were steppe nomads, which is mindboggling…
Anyone new to this stuff and fascinated by it could check out "Proto" by Laura Spinney. A new book about PIE and the Yamnaya and such and also incorporating tie-ins to DNA archeology.
on “The Indo-European Family Tree” ↗I can recommend the new book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global, by Laura Spinney. It's an overview of what we know about Proto Indo-European and its spread across the world. Much of the book is evidence from linguistics but it…
on “Deeper Than Deep: David Reich's genetics lab unveils our prehistoric past (2017)” ↗"Proto" - Laura Spinney. Proto-Indoeuropean. https://www.powells.com/book/proto-how-one-ancient-language-... before that "The Horse the Wheel & Language". David Anthony. Proto-Indoeuropeans. https://www.powells.com/book/horse-the-wheel-language-how-br...
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗…the physical structure of the brain, then presumably isolated indigenous tribes would still have pre-consciousness mental processes, and that should be detectable somehow. The being said, I'm reading "Proto" By Laura Spinney, and the thing that strikes me is how recently the world's major languages developed. Everyone assumes we had language fifty thousand years ago, but the actual language families we know…
on “The Origin of Consciousness (2008)” ↗