The Neolithic Hypothesis (Latin et al.)

[Glen Gordon]

STEVE LONG:
  Finally, what would have prevented PIE from even being a "state"
  language in its own right, like Egyptian or Minoan or Akkadian or a
  Hittite?  LBK or Kurgan are as much unified cultural entities as we
  find later on in history. Why couldn't PIE represent a language
  preserved by kings or priest or the requirements of trade?

MODERATOR:
  The only way for the Indo-European Ursprache to have survived to
  fill the role you suggest is writing--and as we have seen in
  history, even a written language will change out from under the
  written form.  Since there was never a written form of
  Indo-European, I think your final questions are answered.

No, a state language is pushing it because IE-speakers wouldn't have had
the level of organisation that Romans and Greeks later had. IE would
always have been split into dialectal regions. However, I don't see why
IE couldn't be thought of as a kind of disorganized "language of
commerce" whose popularity had spread out of the Pontic-Caspian (or
Balkans, to appease Miguel).

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Glen Gordon
glengordon01 at hotmail.com