Re: [tied] speaking PIE

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

> At 2:26:08 PM on Saturday, July 9, 2005, Gordon Barlow
> wrote:

................

> > It is more likely that personal names (families' surnames
> > and individuals' given names) began at the very dawn of
> > speech.
>
> No, it isn't. The European development of hereditary family
> surnames in the modern style can be observed in the
> historical record. The earliest examples, from northern
> Italy, are only about 1200 years old, and even today only a
> minority of Icelanders have family names. Between late
> antiquity and, say, the year 1000 CE the vast majority of
> Europeans bore a single name.

Furthermore, in some Asian countries, e.g. Indonesia or Afghanistan, a
great many people still do.

Ned Smith