Naming the Horse

In Naming the Horse, author Martin E. Huld explains the basis of linguistic palaeontology, the reconstruction and analysis of past cultures through the words such cultures used to describe and define the elements of their culture and their practices. He refutes a number of misconceptions and distortions about the practice and results of linguistic palaeontology by explaining how historical linguistics is actually practiced and examining the entire range of terms relating to horses along with those of other domesticated animals, the means of transport, and rituals. He surveys previous accounts of the origins of the Proto-Indo-European word for ’horse’, *E, and ultimately offers an explanation of PIE *Eas ’the unruly beast’, a conclusion that provides strong evidence along with ritual prohibitions that the horse was a member of the domesticated animals known to those people and that the Proto-Indo-Europeans were among the earliest people to develop wheeled transport and to ride horses. The speed and agility of the horse enabled them to increase the size of their herds and set off an economic revolution. However, the notion that the horse was primarily used as a weapon of war finds little support in the linguistic evidence. There were certainly no chariots, and the idea that Proto-Indo-European society was primarily focused on warfare and aggression is shown to be untenable.

Martin E. Huld was born in rural western Pennsylvania, and moved with his family to Southern California in his middle teens. After earning a BA with honors in English at CSULA with a thesis on the segmental phonemes of Old English, he entered the innovative Indo-European Studies Program at UCLA where he earned a Ph.D., having written his dissertation on Albanian etymology. Much of his research has been devoted to etymology and linguistic palaeontology, examining the ways in which reconstructed languages encode cultural values and practices of their speakers. He held the positions of lecturer, assistant, associate, and full professor at California State University, Los Angles where he chiefly taught linguistics in the English and anthropology departments. He also taught linguistics at CSU Fullerton and Mount St. Mary’s College, Los Angles. After his formal retirement in 2015, he continued to teach courses in introductory and historical linguistics, classical and mediaeval literature, and mythology and children’s literature until his final retirement in 2021. Since that time, he has devoted his time to writing and to serving on the Executive Board of CSULA’s Emeriti Association.