The king and the god

The king and the god (rēḱs deiwos-kʷe) is the title of a short dialogue composed in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. It is loosely based on the "king Harishcandra" episode of Aitareya Brahmana (7.14 … 33.2). S. K. Sen asked a number of Indo-Europeanists (Y. E. Arbeitman, Eric P. Hamp, Manfred Mayrhofer, Jaan Puhvel, Werner Winter) to reconstruct the PIE "parent" of the text.

The king and the god

Hamp's/Sen's version from the EIEC (1997:503), that differs from original Hamp's version in replacing Hamp's Lughus with Sen's Werunos:

To rḗḱs éh₁est. So n̥putlos éh₁est. So rēḱs súhnum éwel(e)t. Só tós(j)o ǵʰeutérm̥ (e)pr̥ḱsḱet: "Súh_xnus moi ǵn̥h₁jotām!" So ǵʰeutēr tom rḗǵm̥ éweukʷet: "Ih_xgeswo deiwóm Wérunom". So rḗḱs deiwóm Werunom h₄úpo-sesore nu deiwóm (é)ih_xgeto. "ḱludʰí moi, ph_ater Werune!" Deiwós Wérunos km̥ta diwós égʷeh_at. "Kʷíd welsi?" "Wélmi sú_xnum." "Tód h₁éstu", wéukʷet loukós deiwos Werunos. Rēǵós pótnih_a súhnum gegonh₁e.

Lehmann's version:

Pótis gʰe ʔest. Só-kʷe n̥gn̥ʔtós ʔest, sū́num-kʷe wl̥next. So ǵʰutérm̥ pr̥ket: "Sū́nus moi gn̥hjotām!" ǵʰutḗr nu pótim weukʷet: "Jégeswo gʰi déiwom Wérunom." úpo pro pótis-kʷe déiwom sesore déiwom-kʷe jegto. "Kludʰí moi, dejwe Werune!" Só nu km̥ta diwós gʷāt. "Kʷód wl̥nexsi?" "Wl̥néxmi sū́num." "Tód ʔestu", wéwkʷet lewkós déjwos. Pótnī gʰi sū́num gegonʔe.

A sound recording has been made by linguist Andrew Byrd, reading his own translation to reconstructed PIE.^[1]

2013 version

H₃rḗḱs dei̯u̯ós-kwe

H₃rḗḱs h₁est; só n̥putlós. H₃rḗḱs súh_xnum u̯l̥nh₁to. Tósi̯o ǵʰéu̯torm̥ prēḱst: "Súh_xnus moi̯ ǵn̥h₁i̯etōd!" Ǵʰéu̯tōr tom h₃rḗǵm̥ u̯eu̯ked: "h₁i̯áǵesu̯o dei̯u̯óm U̯érunom". Úpo h₃rḗḱs dei̯u̯óm U̯érunom sesole nú dei̯u̯óm h₁i̯aǵeto. "ḱludʰí moi̯, pter U̯erune!" Dei̯u̯ós U̯érunos diu̯és km̥tá gʷah₂t. "Kʷíd u̯ēlh₁si?" "Súh_xnum u̯ēlh₁mi." "Tód h₁estu", u̯éu̯ked leu̯kós dei̯u̯ós U̯érunos. Nu h₃réḱs pótnih₂ súh_xnum ǵeǵonh₁e.

English translation:

Once there was a king. He was childless. The king wanted a son. He asked his priest: "May a son be born to me!" The priest said to the king: "Pray to the god Werunos". The king approached the god Werunos to pray now to the god. "Hear me, father Werunos!" The god Werunos came down from heaven. "What do you want?" "I want a son." "Let this be so", said the bright god Werunos. The king's lady bore a son.

The EIEC spelling largely corresponds to that used in the Proto-Indo-European language article, with h_a for h₂ and h_x for unspecified laryngeals h. Lehmann attempts to give a more phonetical rendering, with x (voiceless velar fricative) for h₂ and ʔ (glottal stop) for h₁. Further differences include Lehmann's avoidance of the augment, and of the palato-alveolars as distinctive phonemes. Altogether, Lehmann's version can be taken as the reconstruction of a slightly later period, after contraction for example of earlier pótnix to pótnī, say of a Centum dialect, that has also lost (or never developed) the augment. However, the differences in reconstructions are more probably due to differences in theoretical viewpoint. The EIEC spelling is a more direct result of the reconstruction process but having typologically too many marked features to be a language really spoken some time in that form, while Lehmann represents the position to attain the most probable natural language to show up in reconstruction the way PIE is.