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Stefan Zimmer Quotes

b. 1947 Germany

Stefan Zimmer (born 1947 in Fulda) is a German linguist.

Germany
Linguists

Random Stefan Zimmer quote

3 quotes

It must be stressed, and cannot be said often enough, that whatever date is given for 'PIE,' it is necessarily no more than pure speculation.

It is therefore historically irresponsible for the linguist to speak of 'Proto-Indo-European' in the 4th millen- nium, and linguistically meaningless for the archaeologist to argue about 'Proto-Indo-Europeans' living somewhere before ca 2500 B.C.

Zimmer (1990a) points out that the inference that the horse was known to the Indo-Europeans is primarily based on such poetic formulas as 'swift horse', 'horses of the sun', 'characterized by good horses', and so on. He feels that "the formulas tell us nothing specific about the use of horses, but archaeology and history supply the necessary information".

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Stefan Zimmer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.