This summary gives a succinct review of the essential facts about Proto-Indo-European languages, including syntax, morphology, pronouns, and historical development.
Proto-Indo-European (PIE):
Overview
Reconstruction of Indo-European languages
Region: Pontic–Caspian steppe (Proto-Indo-European homeland)
Era: c. 4500 – c. 2500 BC
Lower-order reconstructions
Proto-Albanian
Proto-Anatolian
Proto-Armenian
Proto-Balto-Slavic
Proto-Celtic
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Greek
Proto-Indo-Iranian
Proto-Italic
Proto-Tocharian
Development of the Hypothesis
Linguistic reconstruction techniques (comparative method)
William Jones's 1786 postulation
Rasmus Christian Rask's 1818 essay
Franz Bopp's contributions
Jacob Grimm's formulation of Grimm's law in 1822
Neogrammarians and Verner's law (1876)
August Schleicher's work (1874–77)
Laryngeal theory and its acceptance
Julius Pokorny's Indo-European Etymological Dictionary (1959)
Anatolian and Tocharian language discoveries
Historical and Geographical Setting
Kurgan hypothesis
Indo-European migrations from Pontic steppes
Alternative theories: Anatolian, Armenian, Paleolithic continuity, and indigenous Aryans
Colin Renfrew's acceptance of migrations
Noun
Eight or nine cases
Three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, neuter
Development from a two-gender system
Late Proto-Indo-European had allative case
Noun cases explained: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental, ablative, locative, vocative, allative
Pronoun
Personal pronouns in the first and second grammatical person
Demonstrative pronouns for the third person
Accusative, genitive, and dative cases had stressed and enclitic forms
Verb
System of ablaut
Categorization based on grammatical aspect: stative, imperfective, perfective
Four grammatical moods: indicative, imperative, subjunctive, optative
Two grammatical voices: active, mediopassive
Three grammatical persons: first, second, third
Three grammatical numbers: singular, dual, plural
Participles, verbal nouns, and adjectival formations
Proto-Indo-European verb endings
Syntax
Word order: SVO vs. SOV
Jacob Wackernagel's reconstruction (SVO)
Winfred P. Lehmann's reconstruction (SOV)
Paul Friedrich's reconstruction
Hans Henrich Hock's report on the current consensus
Source: Wikipedia: Link
