From New York City, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.

I'm John McWater, and you know, here's how we're gonna start.

Let's just, you know, not for any reason, but just because this is a great song,

this is the spinners. Love me or leave me. This is just good. It's just good.

This is from Pick of the Litter.

When you have tried to give your heart, you try to stand and then give all.

There is no crutch for the best when, when you find out it's all the game.

When you came along, it had all the pretty trimmings.

Come on into rock, but with you there ain't no limit.

So love on me, get yourself together baby.

Isn't that just the best music? If you don't like that, you don't like ham and cheese.

In any case, on this episode, I want to, as I'm doing increasingly lately,

because I really do enjoy it. I want to address a question that a lot of you ask me,

because it actually ties into something that I should have done a show about.

Anyway, which is, how do we know what words were like in this proto-indo-European language

that I'm always talking about having been reconstructed?

And that actually ties into the larger issue of what was the first language like?

What do we know about that if anything?

And so where does all of this come from?

But you can start in the middle. What is this proto-indo-European?

I'm always talking about this language that was spoken 6,000, maybe 8,000 years ago,

but almost certainly 6,000 on the steps of Ukraine and it spreads out to become almost all the languages of Europe

...