Words for Granted – An etymology and linguistics podcast
Words for Granted is a podcast that looks at how words change over time. Each episode looks at the evolution of a single word. Host Ray Belli uses language—more specifically, individual words—to examine history, culture, society, religion, and more.
Words for Granted is a podcast that looks at how words change over time. Host Ray Belli uses linguistic evolution as a way of understanding larger historical and cultural changes.
In this episode, Ray chats with author Laura Spinney about Proto-Indo-European, the ancestral language of hundreds of modern languages spoken by billions today ranging from Western Europe to India. They explore how linguists reconstruct this unwritten language through comparative methods, what its vocabulary reveals about ancient society, and why its story remains relatively unknown despite its global importance. The conversation highlights the interdisciplinary nature of Indo-European studies—drawing on linguistics, archaeology, and especially recent breakthroughs in ancient DNA—which strongly support a migration of steppe pastoralists around 5,000 years ago as a key driver of language spread.
To buy Laura’s excellent book Proto, click here.
Hosts
Ray Belli
