by Elizabeth Fisher
In a space before the world began, where
The Steppes and the plains were silent bare,
Beginnings tickled synapses – a tongue
Was touched by a prehistoric vowel: “Ah”
The world was born – “he’smi”[2] and “he’sti”[3] the
Word was born. Creation lengthened, “eṣäk[4]”
and “purAtala.[5]” On the backs of each
“the” and “semiti[6]”, “lioht[7]” and “bos[8]”, the
Word created life, meaning – perception
was formed. Vibrations declared a spoken
God and out of PIE dust made English us.
[1] PIE, or Proto-Indo European, is the earliest constructed parent language of the modern English tongue
[2] Theorized to be the PIE pronouns “I/me”
[3] PIE pronoun “he/she/it”
[4] Tocharian-A (a daughter language of PIE) word meaning “from above”
[5] Sanskrit word meaning “region below the seven worlds”
[6] Old Celtic word for “all”
[7] Old High German word for “light”
[8] Latin for “cow”
