原语：一种古老语言如何走向全球Proto : How One Ancient Language Went GlobalLaura Spinney

基本信息

Format:Paperback

Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers

Imprint:William Collins

ISBN:9780008626532

Published:24 Apr 2025

Weight:270g

Dimensions:234 x 153 (mm)

基本信息仅供参考，具体以实物为准

书籍简介

活泼又迷人。我喜欢它”大卫·贝洛斯，《你耳朵里有鱼吗？》的作者

“世界历史的缩影......我强烈推荐”道格拉斯·普雷斯顿，《猴神失落之城》的作者

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一种古老的语言改变了我们的世界。这就是它的故事。

当地球摆脱最后一个冰河时代时，欧洲和亚洲之间诞生了一种语言。这种古老的语言，我们称之为原始印欧语，很快就从摇篮中爆发出来，不断变化和分裂，直到它的后代从苏格兰传到中国。如今，这些后裔构成了世界上语言家族，是连接不同文化的主线：但丁的《地狱篇》到《梨俱吠陀》，从《指环王》到鲁米的爱情诗。近一半的人类使用印欧语系语言。这是怎么发生的？

劳拉·斯平尼（Laura Spinney）着手回答这个问题，回顾了印欧人跨越各大洲和几千年的冒险之旅。我们和她一起穿越草原，穿越高加索、丝绸之路和兴都库什山脉。我们追随游牧民族、僧侣、亚马逊战士和狮子王的脚步——这些古老民族将这些语言传播得更远更远。现在，斯宾尼与科学家们会面，他们肩负着找回那些失落语言的激动人心的使命：重建了这个古老的离散语言的语言学家、考古学家和遗传学家。随着人们和他们的语言再次流动，他们所学到的知识对我们的现代世界有着至关重要的影响。 《Proto》用它自己的话来说，是对世界历史的启示性描绘。

'高超。劳拉·斯平尼以风格和气派讲述了一个真正非凡的侦探故事”马特·里德利，《万物的进化》一书的作者

Lively and fascinating. I loved it' David Bellos, author of Is That a Fish in your Ear?

'A history of the world in microcosm ... I highly recommend' Douglas Preston, author of The Lost City of the Monkey God

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One ancient language transformed our world. This is its story.

As the planet emerged from the last ice age, a language was born between Europe and Asia. 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 cultures: 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, 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 languages: 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.

'Superb. With style and panache, Laura Spinney tells a truly extraordinary detective story' Matt Ridley, author of The Evolution of Everything

作者简介

劳拉·斯平尼（Laura Spinney，生于 1971 年 8 月）是一位英国科学记者、小说家和非小说类作家，她 2017 年出版的书《Pale Rider》描述了 1918 年流感大流行。

Laura Spinney (born August 1971) is a British science journalist, novelist, and non-fiction writer whose 2017 book Pale Rider is an account of the 1918 influenza pandemic.