Philology and Evolution 



The Home of the Ixdo-Europeans, 

 by Harold H. Bender, Professor of 

 Indo-Germanic Philology in Prince- 

 ton University. Pp. 57. Princeton 

 Univ. Press, Princeton, N. J., 1922. 

 We are wont to look for information 

 about past ages and peoples to mu- 

 seums where are displayed the findings 

 of archeologists and anthropologists. 

 Occasionally we are led from the fami- 

 liar path by the fire of a new idea that 

 takes us through ways less trodden but 

 no less inviting. Such is the case when 

 Professor Bender directs us by the road 

 of philology to the probable home of 

 the Indo-Europeans. 



Language is one of man's greatest 

 gifts, and his utilization of it makes it 

 possible for us to learn something of 

 man himself. The discovery of the 

 relationship of most of the languages of 

 Europe with one another and with 

 those of India and Persia, and recogni- 

 tion of their common ancestry from a 

 prehistoric tongue, was an important 

 one in evolutionary science. Since 

 this discovery the question of the origi- 

 nal home of the Indo-Europeans, who 

 spoke this ancestral language, has 

 been a problem to attract countless 

 philologists, archeologists, and anthro- 

 pologists. Professor Bender believes 

 the solution is to be indicated by lin- 

 guistic science. 



Approaching the problem by the 

 route of modern philological research, 

 Professor Bender reaches the detached 

 attitude of science and employs the 

 process of elimination. The presence 

 or absence of words in the Indo-Euro- 

 pean languages allow and cause the 

 elimination of certain geographical 

 sections, at one time or another be- 

 lieved to be the home of the Indo- 

 Europeans. The prevalence in almost 

 every Indo-European language of a 

 word for honey or for an intoxicating 

 drink made from honey shows that the 

 primitive home of the Indo-F^uropeans 

 must have been a honey-land. Again, 



names of flora and fauna existing in 

 these languages give general indications 

 of the climatic conditions in the home 

 of the Indo-Europeans. The cumula- 

 tive evidence drawn from vocabulary 

 makes the position that the home of the 

 Indo-Europeans was southeastern 

 Europe appear tenable. The technical 

 apparatus of philology with its division 

 of centum and satem languages, 

 Grimm's law of consonants, and other 

 precepts, introduces further support 

 for this belief. 



Professor Bender anticipates con- 

 siderations that might be ofifered as 

 objections. Traditional beliefs are 

 overthrown and these refutations be- 

 come supporting qualifications in his 

 convincing dialectics. The arguments 

 are so logical, the evidence so decisive, 

 that the reader is satisfied that the 

 plain of eastern central Europe, in 

 which live the Lithuanians, who have 

 preserved more faithfully than any 

 other people on earth the language and 

 cultural position assumed for the pre- 

 historic Indo-Europeans, is the prob- 

 able ancestral home of the majority of 

 civilized peoples. 



Professor Bender does not ignore 

 the contribution of archeology and 

 anthropology to the body of knowledge 

 concerning the Indo-Europeans, but 

 the part of philology's sister sciences is 

 slight in this determination of our 

 heredity. Philology becomes a vital 

 power; archeology and anthropology 

 may be guided by it and their investiga- 

 tions sustain and confirm the position 

 of philology on this question. We 

 are indebted to Professor Bender for 

 the best English presentation of philol- 

 ogy's important contribution to the 

 solution of the problem; its services in 

 helping to reconstruct the history of 

 the past determine the place of lin- 

 guistic science as an efficient ancillary 

 of philosophy in explaining the mean- 

 ing of the present. 



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