Indoeuropeïtzació al paleolític? Algunes reflexions sobre la "Teoria della continuità" de Mario Alinei

Abstract

This article is intended to be a critical evaluation of some of the many contributions Mario Alinei has tried to make in his recent work on the origin of the Indo-European languages. Contrary to his earlier visions, which placed the arrival of the Indo-Europeans in the Aeneolithic or Neolithic period at most, Alinei has proposed that the Indo-Europeans were actually the first settlers in Europe in the Palaeolithic age. This so-called Teoria della Continuità is accompanied by a series of complementary theories related to the nature of linguistic change, the origin of human language, the evolution of the lexicon, linguistic geography, the interpretation of archaeological data, etc. Our articles addresses only the aspects most directly related to Indo-european linguistics and to historical linguistics. Although some of Alineis reflections on linguistic change are very interesting, it should be said that certain conceptions in his work such as the excessive immobility of languages or the relationship between types of language and progress in the prehistoric lithic industry are very debatable. Alineis core theory continuity from the Palaeolithic, runs into a serious difficulty: it obliges us to deal with words traditionally reconstructed for Indo-European, referring to notions that did not exist in the Palaeolithic as loans, when from the formal standpoint they are indistinguishable from those Alinei sees as being Indo-European in the Palaeolithic period.