Consonant and vowel gradation in the Proto-Germanic n-stems

Dit proefschrift behandelt de systematische vocaalwisselingen die de Proto-Germaanse nstammen laten zien. Deze vocaalwisselingen blijken rechtstreeks te kunnen worden teruggevoerd op de nominale ablaut van de Indo-Europese oertaal. In dit opzicht zijn de nstammen dan ook vergelijkbaar met de sterke werkwoorden, die immers bekend staan om hun klinkerwisselingen. Verder laat het proefschrift zien dat de ablaut van de n-stammen nauw vervlochten is met een specifiek Germaanse innovatie. Door een klankwet, ook wel bekend als de Wet van Kluge, kregen de naamvallen met de oorspronkelijke nultrap van het suffix een geminaat, terwijl andere naamvallen ongemoeid bleven. Deze ontwikkeling leidde tot het ontstaan van een type consonantgradatie dat vergelijkbaar is met dat van het S_mi. Een belangrijk inzicht is verder dat deze consonantgradatie niet alleen voor de n-stammen moet worden aangenomen, maar tevens voor de zwakke werkwoorden. De nieuwe afwisseling van enkele en dubbele consonanten in de n-stammen kwam bovenop de reeds bestaande Abstufung der Laute. Dit resulteerde in een verrassend groot aantal wortelvarianten voor elke n-stam. Deze indrukwekkende polymorfie is over het algemeen verkeerd begrepen, en toegeschreven aan __expressiviteit__ of aan de invloed van een verdwenen taal(groep). Dit proefschrift betoogt dat de vormenrijkdom van de n-stammen ontsproten is aan een krachtig samenspel tussen de oude Indo-Europese ablaut en de specifiek Germaanse klankwet die naar Kluge is vernoemd.LEI Universiteit LeidenDescriptive and Comparative Linguistic

Proto-Indo-European *tsel- ‘to sneak’ and Germanic *stelan- ‘to steal, approach stealthily’

Descriptive and Comparative Linguistic

Van bhaw naar boon

Descriptive and Comparative Linguistic

Re-theorising mobility and the formation of culture and language among the Corded Ware Culture in Europe

Descriptive and Comparative Linguistic

The first horse herders and the impact of early Bronze Age steppe expansions into Asia.

The Yamnaya expansions from the western steppe into Europe and Asia during the Early Bronze Age (~3000 BCE) are believed to have brought with them Indo-European languages and possibly horse husbandry. We analyzed 74 ancient whole-genome sequences from across Inner Asia and Anatolia and show that the Botai people associated with the earliest horse husbandry derived from a hunter-gatherer population deeply diverged from the Yamnaya. Our results also suggest distinct migrations bringing West Eurasian ancestry into South Asia before and after, but not at the time of, Yamnaya culture. We find no evidence of steppe ancestry in Bronze Age Anatolia from when Indo-European languages are attested there. Thus, in contrast to Europe, Early Bronze Age Yamnaya-related migrations had limited direct genetic impact in Asia

The population history of northeastern Siberia since the Pleistocene.

Northeastern Siberia has been inhabited by humans for more than 40,000 years but its deep population history remains poorly understood. Here we investigate the late Pleistocene population history of northeastern Siberia through analyses of 34 newly recovered ancient genomes that date to between 31,000 and 600 years ago. We document complex population dynamics during this period, including at least three major migration events: an initial peopling by a previously unknown Palaeolithic population of 'Ancient North Siberians' who are distantly related to early West Eurasian hunter-gatherers; the arrival of East Asian-related peoples, which gave rise to 'Ancient Palaeo-Siberians' who are closely related to contemporary communities from far-northeastern Siberia (such as the Koryaks), as well as Native Americans; and a Holocene migration of other East Asian-related peoples, who we name 'Neo-Siberians', and from whom many contemporary Siberians are descended. Each of these population expansions largely replaced the earlier inhabitants, and ultimately generated the mosaic genetic make-up of contemporary peoples who inhabit a vast area across northern Eurasia and the Americas

The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordData availability: All collapsed and paired-end sequence data for samples sequenced in this study are available in compressed fastq format through the European Nucleotide Archive under accession number PRJEB44430, together with rescaled and trimmed bam sequence alignments against both the nuclear and mitochondrial horse reference genomes. Previously published ancient data used in this study are available under accession numbers PRJEB7537, PRJEB10098, PRJEB10854, PRJEB22390 and PRJEB31613, and detailed in Supplementary Table 1. The genomes of ten modern horses, publicly available, were also accessed as indicated in their corresponding original publications57,61,85-87.NOTE: see the published version available via the DOI in this record for the full list of authorsDomestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 BC. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia and Anatolia, have also recently been challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from 273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia from about 2000 BC, synchronously with equestrian material culture, including Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We find that equestrianism involved strong selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1 genes. Our results reject the commonly held association between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 BC driving the spread of Indo-European languages. This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium BC Sintashta culture