Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global

by Laura Spinney

The epic tale of how one ancient language went global, and the scientific quest to trace it back to its roots, from the celebrated author of Pale Rider

As the planet emerged from the last ice age, a language was born between Europe and Asia, by the Black Sea. This ancient tongue, which we call Proto-Indo-European, soon exploded out of its cradle, changing and fragmenting as it went, until its offspring were spoken from Scotland to China. Today those descendants constitute the world’s largest language family, the thread that connects disparate Dante’s Inferno to the Rig Veda, The Lord of the Rings to the love poetry of Rumi. Indo-European languages are spoken by nearly half of humanity. How did this happen?

Laura Spinney set out to answer that question, retracing the Indo-European odyssey across continents and millennia. With her we travel the length of the steppe, navigating the Caucasus, the silk roads and the Hindu Kush. We follow in the footsteps of nomads and monks, Amazon warriors and lion kings – the ancient peoples who spread these languages far and wide. In the present, Spinney meets the scientists on a thrilling mission to retrieve those lost the linguists, archaeologists and geneticists who have reconstructed this ancient diaspora. What they have learned has vital implications for our modern world, as people and their languages are on the move again. Proto is a revelatory portrait of world history in its own words.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Language, Linguistics, Science, Anthropology, Audiobook

352 pages, Hardcover

First published April 24, 2025

Reviews

[Fred Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spinney aims at a general audience and mostly does a pretty good job, although it might be a bit challenging for those who don't have a background in languages/linguistics. I already knew a little about Proto Indo-European (IE) but it is largely tangential to my academic training in classical philology. Still, it helps to know most of the terminology.

Unlike older books that focus primarily on historical linguistics and archaeology, Spinney includes the results of recent DNA studies of IE remains which have helped clarify things, bolstering some theories and disposing of others. She starts with a general introduction to IE and its origins. This includes a number of connections with mythology. In a chapter called Genesis, appropriately enough, she discusses massive flooding of the Black Sea (due to melting glaciers) something like 10,000 years ago as a possible origin for the flood myth in Gilgamesh, Genesis, etc. In the Caucasus,the Colchis of the Greeks, sheep fleeces were used to pan for gold. Even for those not particularly into languages, there is a lot of interest. She identifies the nomadic Yamnaya people of the steppes of Central Asia as the original IE speakers. Horsemen, metal workers, and general purveyors of language and myth to the world. There is a fair amount of evidence, including DNA, to support this. But Spinney's greatest weakness is her tendency to pick her theory and stick with it, not always giving full attention to the others.

She then proceeds to address each major IE family in its linguistic and geographic context: Anatolian; Tocharian; Celtic, Germanic, Italic; Indo-Iranian; Baltic and Slavic; Albanian, Armenian, and Greek. It ends up being a wide-ranging cultural survey of prehistoric peoples, edging into historical periods for the modern linguistic descendants of IE. She brings in some of the history of Indo-European studies and some of the personalities of the field.

I enjoyed the book, not that I agree with everything in it. It reminded me of things I used to know and introduced a number that I didn't know. And I now have a list of other books to read when I get around to it.

[Alysa H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, well-researched book. In Proto, author Laura Spinney (with assists from the various other academicians she mentions by name throughout) takes a sweeping, multidisciplinary approach to historical linguistics, attempting to trace the origin, spread, and evolution of the vast Indo-European language family from its ancient beginnings through to modern times. Because of the sometimes meandering nature of the writing -- and the topic itself -- I occasionally had a hard time keeping track of which bits are solid fact (such as DNA analysis of human remains from different archaeological sites), which bits are widely-accepted points of agreement, and which bits are still mainly theoretical, but I was thoroughly engrossed and learned things I never knew I needed to know about the history of Eurasia. I've been both entertained and educated!


** I received a Review Copy of this book via NetGalley **
(May 2025 Bloomsbury edition)

[Olivia Swindler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fascinating and extremely well researched. Overall, it was a little too academic and in the weeds for me. I love languages and history, but at times this felt too granular. There were a lot of interesting tidbits that I will remember!

Thank you to libro.fm for my ALC.

[Hank · Rating 4 out of 5]

And the last of my reviews I have to catch up on after my laptop died because I can't type this many words on my phone.

Could I have an intelligent conversation at a cocktail party about languages and how they evolved after reading this? Absolutely not but that isn't Spinney's fault. Can I remember even a few of the the super interesting facts she laid out about languages? Also no. Did I completely enjoy just listening to her talk about language origins, the many, many ways they spread, how they influence cultures and lots of other tidbits? Definitely yes!

Truly a fun book to listen to. Thank you once again LibroFM for the ALC

[Annikky · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

I have a strange obsession with the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language and its origins. Well, to be more precise, in some ways it's not strange at all, as I love pre-history and I find languages fascinating. On the other hand, however, I am not the biggest fan of Indo-Europeans (I am speaking very generally and historically here, but they seem too fond of hierarchy, war, glory and their cows) and frankly the European languages* are absolutely the least interesting for me personally. Despite this, I find the story of the Yamnaya and the search of the original 'homeland' of PIE absolutely thrilling. I plowed through David Anthony's The Horse, the Wheel, and Language which covers some similar ground to Proto, but in much more detail, and devoured David Reich's Who We Are and How We Got Here - Reich's work provides much of the genetic evidence underlying this book. (Both men are amply quoted in Proto.)

I am telling you all this to manage your expectations: if you do not like the topic as much as I do, you will perhaps not enjoy the book as much as I did. Then again, all this amazing stuff about the cultures that gave us PIE, the twelve language families, the recent genetic findings and reconstructions of old words will be new and exciting for you. I have seen some people complain that the book is dense - I do not agree, I think it is very well written and accessible, certainly easier to read than Anthony or Reich. However, the fact that a lot of the info here is familiar to me definitely makes things less difficult to follow, so keep that in mind. Also, there were a few places in the text where I did lose the thread or where things could have been explained more clearly (for example the early chapter on the lingua franca, where it was not super clear who was who and how they were connected). Partly, this reflects the underlying complexity and the inevitable need to speculate, but occasionally it also seemed like an editing issue. Spinney is clearly a great writer and has a very good grasp on the substance, so I suspect something got lost in the revision process. But honestly, this is the only complaint I have and the reason why this isn't a full five stars.

What I was most impressed by in this book was the abundance and freshness of the sources, the research here is really up-to-date, often referencing things published in 2024. It is especially relevant for this topic, as the field is moving very quickly, in particular when it comes to genetics, so things date fast**. Spinney is a journalist by profession, but she seems to have read every relevant scientific paper. She even quotes some Estonian researchers (I can tell you, as an Estonian, that this is rare) and Estonian is not an IE language! In the context of the book, the Uralic languages are relevant only as far as they interact with the IE languages, but Spinney still gives them their due. Somewhat surprisingly, the chapter on Slavic and Baltic languages turned out to be one of my favourites - I'm usually much more interested in the Anatolian and Tocharian branches, for example. Then again, considering that the chapter covered two of my other obsessions - Marija Gimbutas and the Novgorod Republic - it is perhaps not that surprising after all.

Anyway, all this rambling is to say that if you have any interest in this topic specifically or early history/language development more generally, this is a good read.


*I am fully aware that there are branches of IE that are spoken outside of Europe and these are, indeed, much more interesting. But I am generalising here from a very personal, unscientific perspective.
**This of course also means that things in this book will date and some theories that Spinney covers may be proven wrong. I think Spinney makes that clear, but inevitably, much of the nuance of the scientific debate is lost in a 300-page book.

[R Adrien · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to read this book and wanted to like it but found the disquisition a little too non-linear, asif the author wanted to envelope surprises and details into the prose instead of laying things out as plainly as possible.

The history of the Indo-European languages is very complex for sure, so this book should have been laid things out using a more logical structure - like presenting more general details and then moving into specifics, and without interleaving multiple hypotheses in such a convoluted way.

This book has to be read very, very slowly.. or you will end up putting it down or completely skimming it.

A missed opportunity to present an easier read on a fascinating history but still a worthwhile read if the subject matter interests you as much as it does me.

[Alissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 I have an interest in the topics of early human history and language development and found the data in this book compelling and digestible, but the presentation and organization did not blow me away. Especially in audio format, I found myself zoning out when there weren’t clear and consistent connections made to thread the two topics of culture and language. Still, an enjoyable experience, though unfortunately not one I will likely remember long-term.

Thank you to libro.fm for the free educator ALC.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Journalist Laura Spinney examines the origin points of Proto-Indo-European, the ancient reconstructed language considered by many to be the root of many languages spoken today, from English to Sanskrit to Greek to Russian. She looks not only at linguistic connections, but also archeological and genetic evidence, much of which comes from the last 20 years, piecing together cultural migrations, invasions, peaceful intermingling, and reasons language and its grammatical structure takes hold.

I've been fascinated with the links between languages for decades. I took a seminar in college on India and Greece, and the cultural and linguistic ties between the two ancient civilizations, and it stuck with me. Give me root words across multiple languages and I start looking for connections. So this book was written for me. While some of this was familiar to me, a lot of the research Spinney uses to link these theories is more recent than when I was in college - some of the archeological discoveries are even as recent as 2023. Using more than just linguistic roots, she builds a compelling case.

I appreciated that Spinney is careful to point out where language and identity are tied, especially in the cases of the conquerors vs the vanquished, colonizers vs indigenous populations, and nationalism and f@scist political ideologies. (I was nervous to pick up the book in the first place, because the way an author addresses those issues can make or break my respect for their linguistic scholarship.)

I listened to the audiobook, which I found fascinating. The narrator, Emma Spurgin-Hussey, took careful note of pronunciations, and I enjoyed listening to her recite the root words together. I do think that anyone reading this would benefit from a multi-format approach, because most readers will find it helpful to see the written words as well as hear them.

It's been a hot minute since I could get my brain to connect to a nonfiction book, and I'm so glad this was the one I picked up. It stays at a journalistic level, rather than diving deeper into an academic level, so for most readers, even without prior knowledge of PIE and linguistics, you should be able to follow, and for those familiar with the field, this will likely feel broad but helpful.

Thank you to LibroFM for an ALC. Proto is out now.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm hoping that my biggest challenge/disappointment with this book is simply because I read an eARC and will be corrected in print: where are the maps?? It was difficult tracking this or that ancient culture and their travels without them.

The author does not take one of those dry, academic looks at the topic, which helps. It would have been nice had there been more examples of how this or that word translated into more modern languages. There are times when she does that, but far too often we learn that the word for [item] is found in these three languages without being shown how that actually looks. Again, that might be present in the print/finished edition.

I also wanted more about some of the lesser known languages, like Basque. The Romani exit from India to Europe is touched on several times but never really followed through on (eg., they pass through Persia before certain words enter Farsi, but then pretty much disappear from the book). There's a lot of time spent on the genetics and the "lifestyle" differences (hunter-gatherers vs farmers, arts, etc.) and less on the actual language and how it spread.

For those interested in linguistics, this is a good starter book.

eARC provided by publisher via Edelweiss.

[Caitlin Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting factoids here in a certain sense but my reading comprehension was only operating at 30% bc by nature of the subject of the history of proto indo-European language, this book is a bit dense. I liked the parallel between languages spreading like diseases!
I got lost with most of the names and places here but still gleaned how universally important horses are to humanity. Felt like staring at a landscape painting at a museum when fundamentally I’m a portrait painting kinda person

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many people, I have been fascinated with the idea that Proto-IndoEuropean somehow encapsulates the core values that have dominated Europe for the last several thousand years. And Spinney's book is a thorough survey of the current state of research, which is slowly reducing ambiguity around questions such as where the language developed and how it spread. But ultimately, here, I found myself wondering if this really does all matter quite so much. PIE languages are surrounded by non-PIE languages for all their existance. And in the end, what comes through here, is that societies continue to evolve and change as part of a massive mosaic that is more marked by change than continuity. And no story of a single linguistic tradition can encompass the vastness of humanity, even the European kind. It is also hard not to acknowledge that for some, the idea of a piure steppe culture, feels like a fantasy attractive to those who want to avoid the realities of our multiworld. Spinney emphasises that the world has always been multi, but I found myself wanting a bigger, broader story.

[Juan Villalba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brillante, absolutamente brillante

[Katie Livingston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting book on language, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Written in prose anyone regardless of familiarity with the topic can read, though there are parts I wished were better glossed or discussed. I also wish there were more footnotes for certain facts, because while I truly believe in the veracity of what Spinney said, there were some points where I would have liked a source for things mentioned that weren’t necessarily the focus of the chapter (and apparently seen as not needing a source because of that.) Also, as an archaeologist, I would have loved figures of the finds and sites mentioned, though I understand licensing can be an utter pain and expensive.

For those of you unfamiliar with linguistics but curious, be mindful that even I had a hard time keeping times and places straight but this isn’t a mark against the author - tracing languages is nebulous so finding the perfect way to outline it in written word is a hard task.

Finally, the conclusion made me cry because I love humanity.

[GretchenPhrase · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an entertaining and yet sophisticated book about linguistics and actually way beyond that. Has been a while since I was that captivated by any work of linguistics. Highly recommend for for linguistics lovers who don't mind an academic writing style (that is still very entertaining to me).

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty interesting. At some points it was rather dry and all the historic movements of the settlememts didn't really interest me tho I understand why they are important and why they are described in this.

It also has some political messages that I quiet enjoyed.

All in all it was a well done book and I really enjoyed learning some more.

[Peter Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book so much. Geeky but so well written! Everything and more that you wanted to know about the Indo-European languages. Tells the story brilliantly. If you have any interest in language and how half the world speaks one group of languages this is the best way to understand how it most likely happened.

[Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book at the intersection of several of my pet subjects: historical linguistics, archaeology, ancient history, cultural anthropology, etc. Spinney's overview of what we know and how we know it concerning the whole of the Indo-European linguistic group(s) is relatively accessible, engagingly written, and concludes with several practical takeaways for how we should think about language death, language shifts, population migrations, and more. I expect this would reward reading through a second time, as well.

The detail that most stood out to me was the strong possibility that Hittite (a language belonging within my particular area of interest) is actually not an early Indo-European language but instead a daughter of a proto-language that descended alongside PIE from an even earlier proto-language. The book is full of intriguing insights like this one. Highly recommend if you, like me, aim to trap unsuspecting party goers in the corner ls of crowded rooms by offering unsocilicited free lectures.

[Logan Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an incredible story! For those fascinated by history, cultures, and how language shapes each, this is the book for you. Quite erudite and academic it is not a quick read. There is so much to cover over the archaeological, genetic, and written histories of our ancestors and the languages they spoke. I was especially intrigued by how linguists can partner with other disciplines to fill in gaps or answer questions. The various focuses on specific branches of the Proto-Indo-European language was one opening. It required a lot of concentration though, remembering so many places and names and timelines, but I feel accomplished better for it! The timeliness of the topic, the debates of origin and paths of spreading, how those manifest in today’s political world is extremely pertinent and important. I did feel as though it was confusing at times jumping around in time so much back and forth, and I wish there’d been more on the contrast with the other languages like Basque, but overall a fascinating read that I highly recommend!

[Kieran Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential for anyone who read “The Horse, the Wheel, and Language” >10 years ago and is ready to be delighted, amused, and amazed at the contributions of genetics to PIE studies since then. If a wheel needs at least three spokes to hold its shape – which I kinda think it does – then what we’ve learnt from the analysis of ancient bones and teeth has been the complement that linguistics and archaeology were crying out for. Culture, ethnicity, and language overlap in always-fascinating but never straightforward ways, and the ability to look into ancient genomes feels thrilling and forbidden, somehow.

Spinney has written a damn fine popular linguistics book here. Even my aversion to potsherds, kurgans, and things in general that are scraped painstakingly up out of the earth and cleaned with toothbrushes couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm for her breakneck survey of current thinking on how the hell half the world came to speak languages descended from a handful of steppe-dwelling herders 8,000 years ago.

[Mihai Pop · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book as truly exceptional both from linguistic point of view, as now I grasp the concept of Indo-European language, but also from the genetic migration point of view. Again it shows the importance of the steppe and the plains above Black and Caspian seas for an Asian-European interchange, and how the genetic sampling and sequencing shows how much we're related to the Yamnaya people. A truly remarkable work, set out in a language for the laymen, which should be translated in all of the languages from India to Latin American.

For sure I would want to gift it in Romanian to quite a few people!

[Lynnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, recent book that covers evolutions and revelations in the field of linguistics, including new science. Since it’s attempting to bring a lot of new information into the mainstream, it sometimes skims over historical context, but never quite completely which is good. She gives adequate and fair attention to currently-fringe linguistic theories—as hopefully we’ve all learned to do since Gimbutas.

An attentive reader could walk out of this with a great understanding of the current lay of the linguistic land. One true negative is the amount of unavoidable jargon that a book like this has to contain, and which might confuse an impatient reader.

[Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating, engaging look at Proto-Indo-European, the mother-language that spawned almost half the languages spoken in the world today. As a huge language nerd, I absolutely loved every second of it.

My full rambling review is on my blog: https://worldliteratour.com/book-revi...

Many thanks to NetGalley for the eARC! Release date is May 13.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Linguistics has always fascinated me. A teacher of geography from my early teenage years took great pains to help her students understand that geography wasn’t just the study of types of land formation, but also people, culture, customs, traditions, economy, and language. Laura Spinney shows how much migration and genetics plays a role as well.

[Ivor Armistead · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing and thorough (for the general reader) look at the migration and evolution of language based on the combined efforts of three disciplines: linguistics, archeology and genetics. A must read for those of us interested in from whence we, the way we speak and our cultures came.

[Ariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always been curious about how linguists reconstruct language development and this book offered some good insight. Nice anthropological insights as well. But it was pretty dry, even for someone with a lot of interest in the subject-matter

[Jim Gise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent science writing by an author clearly encyclopedic and passionate about her subject. A fascinating journey, about as epic in scope as you can get.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting, but I can't in good conscience give it higher than a 4 due to some truly baffling blink-and-you'll-miss-it comments (Shakespeare writing in Middle English, slaves building the pyramids... no. Just no).

[Rong Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Migration has been a constant, ‘indigenous’ is relative." Very true. To those who want to raise a wall, "know thyself"
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"Prehistoric people would have been as sensitive to natural beauty as we are, perhaps even more so ..." --- As a sincere worshipper of Aurora, I consent.

[Rocco Graziano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as in-depth as I would have liked, but I did love the spotlighting of individual archaeologists/linguists.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book because Proto-Indoeuropean comes up pretty often in a large fraction of the podcasts I listen to. It was a little challenging to read casually though. The author kept dropping us into different places and times and it wasn't always obvious where and when we were and why. The book would have benefited from a lot more maps, timelines, and transitions.