A lot of linguists believe that Proto-Indo-European was the ursprache* of Indo-European languages, but we actually don’t know what Proto-Indo-European sounded like. In the link below, a linguist at the University of Kentucky, Dr. Andrew Byrd, gives his best approximation of what our ancestors may have spoken thousands of years ago. When I listened to it, I was amazed that someone could recreate the language! Let me know what you think!
http://www.archaeology.org/exclusives/articles/1302-proto-indo-european-schleichers-fable
*I wrote about the word ursprache here: https://thewordexplorer.wordpress.com/?s=Ursprache
This is so interesting! I’ve never heard anyone attempt to pronounce Indo-European before, and I’m glad to know about this recording.
Dr. Byrd was the pronouncer at the UK Regional Spelling Bee. At the time, I had no idea that he was an expert on Proto- Indo-European! I hope to talk to him next year about his research, if I see him again.
Thanks for the post! I’ll indeed be there at this year’s spelling bee. Good luck!
You are very welcome! I greatly enjoyed the recording of you speaking PIE.