science

Schleicher's fable

Schleicher's fable is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Schleicher's fable rather than just read about it. In short: Schleicher’s fable is a text composed as a reconstructed version of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE), published by August Schleicher in 1868. Schleicher was the first scholar to compose a text in PIE.

Key takeaways

Schleicher's fable belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Schleicher's fable to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Schleicher's fable from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Schleicher’s fable is a text composed as a reconstructed version of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE), published by August Schleicher in 1868. Schleicher was the first scholar to compose a text in PIE. The fable is entitled *Avis akvāsas ka (‘The Sheep [Ewe] and the Horses’). At later dates, various scholars have published revised versions of Schleicher’s fable, as the idea of how PIE should be presented and pronounced has changed over time. The resulting parallel texts serve as an illustration of the significant changes that the reconstruction of the language has experienced during the last 150 years of scholarly efforts. The first revision of Schleicher’s fable was made by Hermann Hirt (published by Arntz in 1939). A second revision was published by Winfred Lehmann and Ladislav Zgusta in 1979. Another version by Douglas Q. Adams appeared in the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (1997:501). In 2007 Frederik Kortlandt published yet another version on his internet homepage.

The Sheep and the Horses

Schleicher (1868)

Schleicher’s German translation

English translation

The Sheep and the Horses (1) A sheep that had no wool saw horses, one of them pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a big load, and one carrying a man quickly. (2) The sheep said to the horses: "My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses." (3) The horses said: "Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself. And the sheep has no wool."

(4) Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.

Hirt (1939)

Lehmann and Zgusta (1979)

Danka (1986)

Adams (1997)

Lühr (2008)

Voyles and Barrack (2009)

Kortlandt (2007, revised 2010)

After the separation of Anatolian and Tocharian:

Byrd (2013)

Notable differences Some of the differences between the texts are simply varying spelling conventions: *w and *u̯, for example, are only different symbols to indicate the same sound, a consonantal *u, so that *wóĝhom and *u̯óǵʰom are actually the same reconstruction. However, many other differences are to be explained by widely diverging opinions concerning the phonological and morphological systems of PIE. Schleicher’s reconstruction assumed that the o/e vocalism was secondary, and his version of PIE is based much more closely on Sanskrit than modern reconstructions. Hirt introduced the o/e vocalism, syllabic resonants, labiovelars and palatalized velars. Lehmann and Zgusta introduced a few alternative lexemes (the relative pronoun *kʷesjo; the word *nēr ‘man’), and made some use of laryngeals: their text features an h (*wl̥hnā) for what they seem to accept as a single laryngeal of PIE. Adams was the first one to represent fully the laryngeal theory in his version of the fable. Judging from the text, he seems to assume four different laryngeal phonemes. Consequently, Adams’ text no longer shows long ā. Kortlandt’s version is a radical deviation from the prior texts in a number of ways. First, he conforms to the glottalic theory, representing glottalic plosives with a following apostrophe (t’) and omitting aspirated voiced plosives. Second, he substitutes the abstract laryngeal signs with their supposed phonetic values: *h1 = *ʔ (glottal stop), *h2 = *ʕ (voiced pharyngeal fricative), *h3 = *ʕʷ (pharyngeal fricative with labialization). Kortlandt also has a different opinion about ablaut grades in many verbal and nominal forms, compared to the other scholars.

Cultural references In Ridley Scott’s 2012 film Prometheus, the android character ‘David’ (played by Michael Fassbender) was shown reciting the Schleicher's Fable after a holographic teacher (played by Dr. Anil Biltoo, also the film's linguistics consultant.)

See also The king and the god, a short dialogue written in reconstructed Proto-Indo-European

References

Bibliography Arntz, Helmut (ed.), Hirt, Hermann: Die Hauptprobleme der indogermanischen Sprachwissenschaft. Niemeyer, Halle a.d. Saale 1939 (Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken germanischer Dialekte. B. Ergänzungsheft 4) Kortlandt, Frederik. 2007. For Bernard Comrie. Lehmann, W., and L. Zgusta. 1979. Schleicher’s tale after a century. In Festschrift for Oswald Szemerényi on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, ed. B. Brogyanyi, 455–66. Amsterdam. Lühr, Rosemarie Von Berthold Delbrück bis Ferdinand Sommer: Die Herausbildung der Indogermanistik in Jena Mallory, J. P. and Adams, D. Q.: Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. London, 1997. p. 500ff. Schleicher, August: Fabel in indogermanischer Ursprache. In: Beiträge zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der arischen, celtischen und slawischen Sprachen. 5/1868. Dümmler, Berlin, p. 206–208

External links Schleicher’s reconstructed text with a literal English gloss Telling Tales in Proto-Indo-European, an audio rendition of the fable

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Schleicher's fable

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Schleicher's fable claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Schleicher's fable before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Schleicher's fable ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Schleicher's fable

In research: Schleicher's fable appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Schleicher's fable in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Schleicher's fable is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1868 in science, 1868 short stories, Fables, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Schleicher's fable outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Schleicher's fable in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Schleicher's fable means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Schleicher's fable out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Schleicher's fable in simple terms?

Why does Schleicher's fable matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Schleicher's fable?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Schleicher's fable.