Ancient language not heard for 4,000 years is recorded for the first time as linguists work out how English came about using ancient texts

Proto-Indo-European, or PIE, was spoken across Europe and Asia

Believed to exist between 4,500 and 2,500 B.C

Written example was created in Germany in 1868

This is the first time an attempt at pronouncing it has been made

For the first time in four thousand years the ancient language called PIE can be heard thanks to decades of research.



In a recording Dr Andrew Byrd, a linguistics expert from the University of Kentucky, reads the parable of the sheep and the horses in an ancient language called Proto-Indo-European, or PIE.

Even though there is no written record of the language, Dr Byrd has managed to recreate an approximate version based on knowledge of ancient texts in Indo-European languages, such as Latin, Greek and Sanskrit.



The Kurgan hypothesis is the most likely explanation for how culture and language spread across early Europe and Asia

The language was last spoken between approximately 4,500 and 2,500 B.C by our ancestors from all over Europe and Asia.

The parable itself was actually written in 1868 by German linguist Dr. August Schleicher, who then translated the story into PIE as a way to experiment with the vocabulary, according to Archaeology magazine.

There is no way to create a definitive version of the language and Byrd says his pronunciation is 'a very educated approximation.'

Audio source Soudcloud Archaeology

The parable of sheep and horses as it appears when translated into PIE, an ancient language which helped create English

Speaking to Huffington Post, he said: 'Languages differ on how they pattern their sounds together, and they use those sounds to create new words. Proto-Indo-European is very guttural.'

Despite the interest in his recording, Byrd says that he has no intention to create any more, mostly because he would first have to create new stories as no written examples exist.



Some of the many modern languages that stem from the Indo-European family include English, Swedish and Farsi.



Byrd added: 'Farsi and English were 6,500 years ago the same language. That's pretty cool, and it kind of gives you a sense of unity.'



Because of the lack of available information, PIE is a debated topic among researchers.



Byrd believes PIE was probably spoken on the Eurasian steppes around 6,500 years ago, but other researchers recently introduced a controversial new theory that it was spoken several thousand years earlier in Turkey.



Sadly we will probably never know what PIE actually sounded like, and Byrd joked that the only way to create a definitive recording was to invent a time machine.