Hamp Eric P. The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages: An Indo-Europeanist’s Evolving View

With annotation and comments by Douglas Q. Adams. — Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2013. — 14 p. — (Sino-Platonic Papers; 239). — ISSN: 2157-9679 (print), 2157-9687 (online).In 1989 and again in the period 2009–2012 Eric Hamp produced several hand-drawn Stammbäume to represent his understanding of the interrelationships of the various branches of Indo-European. Reproduced here are the 1989 tree and a composite of the 2009–2012 trees (which do not present any differences in branching, but do occasionally have somewhat different notes attached).
These trees are interesting from at least two perspectives. First and foremost, they represent the mature views of an eminent Indo-Europeanist, one who was equally at home at the micro-level and the macro-level, of the complicated picture of these interrelationships. Secondly, comparing the first and second trees, created almost a quarter of a century apart, gives insight into how he assessed the new data and the new arguments that appeared in this period.
His sub-grouping of Indo-European is at times quite conservative (e.g., the primary distinction within non-Anatolian Indo-European between Asiatic [= Indo-Iranian] and European Indo-European) and, at others, quite innovative (e.g., the acceptance of Burushaski as a definite sibling of “Indo-Hittite” [though possibly a creolized one], the placement of Tocharian so deeply within European Indo-European).
Finally, Hamp gave attention to how the geographical spread of these subgroups came about.