1. Europaio is, thus, a language System, a group of standardized rules necessary for proper communication, unlike IE III, which was a group of dialects spoken only in its speakers' prehistoric community. It is necessary, as it was always necessary in the civilizations that followed the Europaio splits (as the Romans, the Greeks, the Persians, etc.), to systematize a common, national language. This was usually made by choosing the dialect of the majority, or that of the richest or most powerful, in any case that of the dominant part of the society. All of these conditions are met by the Northern Dialects of IE III, which has to become the standard of the spoken language for the new Europe.
2. The system is made partly based on the obvious underlying old system (of the common IE III), partly based on more modern innovations (mainly of the Northern dialects); and partly, as always, eliminating old (possibly) general rules which cannot be used by a modern language speaker, such as some old syntax rules, and - more rarely - artificially generalizing (possibly) non-general rules. We have also developed two new formations, based on modern European languages: the (dynamic) passive voice endings and the conditional.
3. The words to complete the reconstruction are to be found mainly in modern IE languages, while the general loan words, wether classical (from Greek and Latin, like philosophy or hypothesis) or modern (from English, like software, from Spanish, like guerrilla, from German, like Kindergarten, etc.), should be translated as well when possible, as they are all theoretically Europaio dialectal words whose original meaning could easily be seen if translated. For example, the Greek word photo, could appear in Europaio either as photo [p'oto] or [foto] (as an own loan word), or as bhawto [bhəwto] (as an own word), from the verb bha, to shine, which in Greek gives for example phosphorus and phot. The second form is, then, preferred.
4. A comparison with Hebrew seems necessary, as it is the only successful precedent of an old, reconstructed language becoming the living language of a whole Nation:
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HEBREW |
EUROPAIO |
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ca. 3000 BC: Proto-Aramaic, Proto-Ugaritic, and other Canaanite languages spoken. |
ca. 3000 BC: IE II dialects, such as proto-IE III and proto-Anatolian spoken. |
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ca. 1000 BC: The first written evidence of distinctive Hebrew, the Gezer calendar. |
ca. 2000 BC Northern IE dialects develop in Europe. ca. 1600 BC: Hittite and Luwian tablets, both Anatolian dialects. ca. 1500 BC: Linear B tablets in Mycenaean Greek. |
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Orally transmitted Tanakh, composed between 1000 and 500 BC. |
Orally transmitted Rigveda, in Vedic Sanskrit, (similar to older Indo-Iranian), composed in parts, from 1500 to 500 BC. Orally transmitted Zoroastrian works in Avestan (Iranian), from 1000 to 700 BC. Homeric works dated from ca. 700 BC. Italic inscriptions, 700-500 BC. |
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Destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II, in 586 BC. The Hebrew language is then replaced by Aramaic in Israel under the Persian Empire. Destruction of Jerusalem and Expulsion of Jews by the Romans in 70 AD. |
Italics, Celtics, Germanics, Baltics and Slavics are organized mainly in tribes and clans. Expansion of the great Old Civilizations, such as the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. Behistun Inscription in Avestan, Celtic inscriptions ca 500 BC; Negau Helmet in Germanic, ca. 200 BC. |
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70-1950 AD. Jews in the Diaspora develop different dialects with Hebrew influence, with basis on Indo-European or Semitic languages. |
Expansion of the renowned Antique, Medieval and Modern Indo-European civilizations, such as the Byzantines, the Franks, the Spanish and Portuguese, the Polish and Lithuanians, the French, the Austro-Hungarians and Germans and the English among others. |
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1880 AD. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda begins the reconstruction of a modern Hebrew language for the future Land of Israel. |
1820 AD. Rask and Bopp begin the reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. |
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19th century. Jews speaking different Indo-European (Yiddish, Judeo-Spanish, etc.) and Semitic languages (Judeo-Aramaic, Judeo-Arab etc.) settle in Israel, at first using different linguae francae to communicate, such as Turkish, Arab, French or English. |
1949-1992. European countries form an International European Community, the EEC. 1992-2005: A Supranational entity, the European Union, substitutes the EEC. There are more than 20 official languages*, 3 de facto, English, German and French. |
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1922 AD. Hebrew is named official language of Palestine, along with English and Arabic. From that moment on, modern Hebrew becomes more and more the official National language of the Israeli Nation. The settlers' native languages are still spoken within their communities and families. |
1992-Present. New steps are made to develop a National entity, a confederation-like state. The EU's Constitution and linguistic policy are two of the most important issues to be solved before that common goal can be achieved. |
*Although there are no exact statistics, probably about 97% of the EU population speaks a IE language as a mother tongue, and every European must learn at least one IE language at school.
5. The adjective and noun Europaios comes from europaios, the genitive (and adjective) of Old Greek Europe / Europa, both forms interchangeable already in the oldest Greek, and both coming from the same ending, -a (see § 4.9.3.) or (in laryngeals' theory) a still older -eh. The Greek ending -ai-o- (see § 4.7.8. for more on this special genitive) turns into Latin -ae-u-, and so Europaeus. The forms Europa and Europaios are, then, the original and correct ones, and have been also the most widely used forms for millennia. Only modern Greek maintains the form Europe (modern Greek Europi) for the subcontinent; but even in this modern language the adjectives are europaikos, m., (with a newer IE ethnic ending -ikos) and europaia, f.
NOTE 1. Europe is a common evolution of Latin a-endings in French; as in Amerique for America, Belgique for Belgica, Italie for Italia, and so on. The English term Europe is thus a French loan word, as can be seen from the other continents' names: Asia (not *Asy), Africa (not *Afrik), Australia (not *Australy), and America (not *Amerik).
NOTE 2. In Latin there were still two forms for Europe: Europa, Europaeus, and lesser used Europe, Europensis. The last form is usually seen in scientific terms.
The genitive of the Europaio word Europa is Europas, though, following the third declension. The name of the language is Europaiom, inanimate, because in almost every IE language that has an independent name for languages, this is neuter.