Indo-Slavic lexical isoglosses and the prehistoric dispersal of Indo-Iranian
PhD thesis — Leiden University, 2024. Full text: https://archive.org/details/indo-slavic-thesis
Arguments
Indo-Slavic lexical isoglosses and the prehistoric dispersal of Indo-Iranian
It redraws the migration map — a detour through northeast Europe instead of the long-assumed direct eastward push out of the steppe.
Shared lexical innovations between Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic reveal a period of shared development — the Indo-Slavic linkage — meaning Indo-Iranian did not spread straight eastward from the Core Indo-European homeland; it moved into northeast Europe during the 3rd millennium BCE and only then spread east toward the Urals.
Why it matters
It redraws the migration map — a detour through northeast Europe instead of the long-assumed direct eastward push out of the steppe.
Use when: Shared vocabulary is a migration map — the words two language branches innovated together trace where their speakers once stood.