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Proto

How One Ancient Language Went Global
By Laura Spinney
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Brief Description
A GUARDIAN, NEW STATESMAN, PROSPECT AND WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2025 'The fascinating story of ancient words … new revelations await' The Guardian 'A magisterial feat' New Scientist ________________________________ One ancient language transformed our world. This is its story. Star. Stjarna. Stare. Thousands of miles apart,... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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A GUARDIAN, NEW STATESMAN, PROSPECT AND WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2025

'The fascinating story of ancient words … new revelations await' The Guardian

'A magisterial feat' New Scientist

________________________________

One ancient language transformed our world. This is its story.

Star. Stjarna. Stare. Thousands of miles apart, people look up at the night sky and use the same word to describe what they see.

Listen to these English, Icelandic and Iranic words and you can hear echoes of one of the most extraordinary journeys in humanity’s past. All three of these languages – and hundreds more – share a single ancient ancestor.

Five millennia ago, in a mysterious Big Bang of its own, this proto tongue exploded, forming new worlds as it spread east and west. Today, nearly half of humanity speaks an Indo-European language. How did this happen?

In Proto, acclaimed journalist Laura Spinney sets off to find out. With her we travel the length of the steppe, navigating the Caucasus, the Silk Roads and the Hindu Kush. We follow in the footsteps of nomads and monks, Amazon warriors and lion kings – the ancient peoples who spread these tongues far and wide. In the present, Spinney meets the linguists, archaeologists and geneticists racing to recover this lost world. What they have discovered has vital lessons for our modern age, as people and their languages are on the move again.

Proto is a revelatory portrait of world history in its own words.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780008626563

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 May 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: William Collins

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 26.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 240g

Pages: 352

Collections

Ancient & Classical History Best Sellers at Book Hero Education & Reference Gifts $20-$50 History & Archaeology History & Military In Stock Books Laura Spinney New Release Books New Release Non-Fiction Non-Fiction Philosophy & Psychology Science & Nature

About the Author

Laura Spinney was born in Yorkshire in 1971 and graduated from Durham University with a degree in Natural Sciences. She has written for the New Scientist, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. Her first novel ‘The Doctor’ was published by Methuen in 2001. She lives in Paris and London.

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