Originally Posted by Silvie Vanseveren - A new ancient Indo-European Language? On assumed linguistic contracts between Sumerian and Indo-European "Euphratic":
It has been recently assumed that linguistic contact could exist between Sumerian and an unknown Indo-European language, called Euphratic, which could be attested as a substrate in Sumerian. This assumption is interesting enough regarding Indo-European historical linguistics, but a methodological and practical scrutiny shows that it raises to important difficulties and is untenable.
So, there are discussions whether amongst the Sumerians lived a group of people who spoke a very early form of IE. This could be earlier than Hittite, Greek and Sanskrit!
G. Whittaker has been addressing this issue up many times in the past (1998, 2001, 2004, 2005) and it seems like it does have some basis and support. It is the ancient tablets of Uruk IV and III that contain non-Sumerian words that could belong to a very archaic Indo-European language. The speakers of this so called "Euphratic language" could have been present in Southern Mesopotamia by the end of the 4th millennium B.C. The Euphratic language demonstrates a Western-type dialect of Indo-European related to Italic, Celtic, Germanic, it preserves laryngeals, has feminine gender and should have separated from the Proto-Indo-European language around 4000 B.C ( a bit earlier than Hittite).
I know it sounds like a very bold hypothesis, but I am sure it deserves some attention. At least, even if it is wrong, we should find out why it is wrong and stop living with a big questionmark . I am very carefull with such epic "breakthroughs" but I cannot avoid having a closer look at this.
I will give you some samples on what Euphratic might have been.
English: queen
Sumerian: nin
Proto-Indo-European: gwnon
English: woman
Sumerian: gan
Proto-Indo-European: Gwen-
Gothic: qino
English: garlic
Sumerian: hadim
Proto-Indo-European: h3odent = smell
Armenian: hotim
Proto-Greek: hodma
English: great
Sumerian: maha
Proto-Indo-European: majH-
Greek: megas
Sanskrit: mah-
English: sheep
Sumerian: u3wi
Proto-Indo-European: h2owis
Latin: ovis