Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global
𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 — 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘥𝘺𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥.
𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘:
Published May 2025, ‘Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global’ by Laura Spinney unravels the breathtaking saga of how a forgotten tongue spoken on the icy steppes of ancient Ukraine became the invisible thread binding civilizations across continents. From the soaring verses of Dante, Rumi, and the Rig Veda to everyday words in English, Sanskrit, and Persian, Spinney traces the odyssey of Proto-Indo-European — a language long vanished yet miraculously alive in its linguistic descendants.
Journeying with nomads, monks, and kings through the Silk Roads and Hindu Kush, and guided by modern linguists, archaeologists, and geneticists, Spinney resurrects the voices of a lost world. Proto is not merely the story of words — it is the epic of humanity in motion, revealing how a buried language still shapes the beating heart of our modern world.
𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒:
• Introduction: Ariomania
• 1: GENESIS — Lingua obscura
• 2: SACRED SPRING — Proto-Indo-European
• 3: FIRST AMONG EQUALS — Anatolian
• 4: OVER THE RANGE — Tocharian
• 5: LARK RISING — Celtic, Germanic, Italic
• 6: THE WANDERING HORSE — Indo-Iranian
• 7: NORTHERN IDYLL — Baltic and Slavic
• 8: THEY CAME FROM STEEP WILUSA — Albanian, Armenian, Greek
• Conclusion: Shibboleth
• Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Bibliography
• Endnotes
𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖:
• Amazon Kindle Sample:
𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 & 𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐄:
• Bloomsbury Publishing:
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/proto-9781639732586/
𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖:
• Asian Review of Books:
https://asianreviewofbooks.com/proto-how-one-ancient-language-went-global-by-laura-spinney/
𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄:
• Slate — How English Evolved From a Lost Language:
https://slate.com/culture/2025/05/english-language-origin-proto-indo-european-laura-spinney.html
𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖:
• YouTube — Interview with Laura Spinney: