Linguistic History
What languages were spoken in Europe during the prehistorical period is controversial. Most scholars believe that one or more non Indo-European languages were spoken, prior to the introduction of Proto-Indo-European either in the Neolithic or Bronze Age. A Vasconic substratum hypothesis for Western Europe, with influence from a "Semitidic" language, has been postulated but roundly rejected. Kalevi Wiik has suggested that Finno-Ugric languages may have been spoken across the whole of northern Europe at the end of the last glacial maximum. This hypothesis has been rejected by mainstream linguistics.
A minority of scholars have argued for a deeper time depth of proto-Indo-European in Europe. A group of scholars led by Mario Alinei considers that Indo-European has been spoken in Europe since the last glacial maximum, in the Paleolithic Continuity Theory. Jonathan Adams and Marcel Otte have a slightly different point of view, suggesting that Indo-European spread immediately after the Younger Dryas.
Proto-Indo-European is believed to have given rise to most of the languages of Europe in the historical period. However, it is known that a number of non Indo-European languages were spoken in the proto-historical part of prehistoric Europe. In north-eastern Europe there is a separate group of Uralic languages that have been considered to be spoken in the region since prehistoric times.
Donald Ringe rejects all the aforementioned specific proposals on grounds of the findings of language geography in areas with "tribal", pre-state societies, such as North America prior to European colonization, which renders a Neolithic Europe dominated by only a few language families extremely implausible, even impossible. He argues that prior to the spread of the Indo-European and Uralic families, Europe must have been a place of great linguistic diversity.
Read more about this topic: Prehistoric Europe
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