Scythian Hypothesis and the Discovery of Indo-European The current knowledge of the Indo-European language family is based on hundreds

of years of speculation and work determining linguistic interrelationships, but the idea itself is rooted in its earlier conception, the Scythian Hypothesis, whose traces are still visible in current Indo-European theory ( ampbell !""#$% &efore the term Indo-European was used in the late '#th century, scholars working on this language family were aware of the Scythian Hypothesis and built upon it to develop the IndoEuropean hypothesis, known to encompass (ermanic, eltic, Slavic, Italic, Indic, &altic, )lbanian, Hellenic, )natolian, )rmenian, Tocharian, and Iranian (*etcalf '+,-$% The main difference between the Scythian Hypothesis and the Indo-European hypothesis is that the former was a vague and less well-known proposal with many discrepancies among its viewpoints, whereas the Indo-European hypothesis had a wider following with general agreement and with it began e.tensive research (*etcalf '+,-$% This paper demonstrates the way in which the Scythian Hypothesis evolved into the IndoEuropean hypothesis, in which the comparative method played a role as a bridge between the two hypotheses by further solidifying the linguistic relationship among the Indo-European languages% /ohannes (oropius &ecanus ('0'+-'0,!$ was the first to propose the Scythian Hypothesis in the '1th century% It posited a single proto-language originating in Scythian, from which many European languages such as (reek and 2atin descended% Scythian, then, is reflected in what is currently thought of as 3roto-Indo-European (*etcalf '+,-$% In the ',th and '#th centuries, many scholars who recogni4ed linguistic similarities between (reek, 2atin, and Sanskrit, as well as other languages falling under Indo-European, would e.plain the relationship with the Scythian Hypothesis ( ampbell !""#$% There were a variety of scholars who discovered similarities between Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages between the '0th and '#th centuries, a crucial turning point for the hypothesis ( ampbell !""#$% They used le.ical, phonological, and grammatical correspondences to claim their genetic relationship, techni5ues used in the comparative method% 6or e.ample, Halhed in A Grammar of the Bengal Language (',,#$ used grammatical evidence in the form of the suffi. -mi in verbs of 'st person

in both Sanskrit and (reek to link them to each other ( ampbell !""#$% It wasn7t until after Sir 8illiam /ones7 famous 9philologer: statement in ',#1 claiming the connection among Sanskrit, 2atin, and (reek that their linguistic kinship was generally recogni4ed and the language family began to be called the 9Indo-European hypothesis: (;lender '++-$% This statement stimulated widespread research and what were before conflicting posited language families under the Scythian Hypothesis became one solid theory% To further solidify the linguistic relationships among the Indo-European languages, the comparative method was used by systematically comparing sound correspondences to compare sister languages and reconstruct a proto-language, such as comparing Sanskrit syt and 2atin sit third person singular forms to reconstruct the 3roto-Indo-European third person singular form sit (8atkins '+,<='"-$% It was with the comparative method that the languages posited as genetically related under the Scythian hypothesis were validated and the actual members of the language family were recogni4ed as Indo-European%

References ampbell, 2yle% !""#% The &eginning of omparative 2inguistics% hapter from The Handbook of 2inguistics, ed% by *ark )ronoff > /anie ?ess-*iller, #'-'"-% &lackwell 3ublishers 2td%

*etcalf, (eorge /% '+,-% The Indo-European hypothesis in the si.teenth and seventeenth centuries% Studies in the history of linguistics= traditions and paradigms, ed% by @ell Hymes, !<<-0,% &loomington= Indiana Aniversity 3ress%

;lender, *aurice% '++-% Europe, or How to escape &abel% History and Theory <<%0-!0% 8atkins, % '+,<% 2anguage and its history% Daedalus '"!(<$=++-'''%