To the Source of Brewing at the Indo-European Peoples.

In the 5th millennium BC, Indo-European, Turkic, and Finno-Ugric tribes arrived in Eastern Europe from the Caucasus. Here they gradually settled over a large area from the Vistula to the Volga. In the 3rd millennium BC, the ancestors of the Chuvashes, the ancestors of Chuvashes, Prpto-Chuvashes, having left their ancestral homeland in the Azov steppes, crossed the Dnieper and, having mixed with the local population of the Trypillian culture, settled the territory of modern Podolia.

Thus, they came into close contact with the Indo-European tribes inhabiting the basin of the middle Dnieper and its tributaries (see map on the left).

The Indo-Europeans in their second homeland were not familiar with winemaking and did not know wine, living far from those places where the climate conditions allowed people to engage in viticulture and winemaking. They became acquainted with wine during their migrations in the southern and southwestern directions. It was not so with brewing. Hops, used in beer production grew in the places of their settlements, or at least could be cultivated. Similar words for hops are widespread in many Indo-European and Finno-Ugric languages (Slav. *x(ŭ)melǐ, Rus. khmel’, Bulg. khmel’, Ukr. khmіl', Pol chmiel, Cz, Slvk. chmel, NGmc humli, humall, OE hymele, MLG homele, MLat. Humulus, MGr. χουμελι, Fin. humala, Hung. komló, Mansi kumli). F. Kluge refers to these words also Ger Hopfen “hops” (KLUGE FRIEDRICH. 1989). Scholars believe that how the word for hops spread is very complex and the time of its appearance in different languages ​​is different, but its widespread use testifies to its practical value. Currently, hops have been used most often in brewing as a preservative since the 8th-9th century AD, initially in Germany and the Netherlands (BRAUDEL FERNAND. 1985: 238). Since other widespread use of hops is not attested, such a late involvement of it in the preparation of a drink that has existed for millennia is questionable. This confirms the understanding of the word khmelnoy in the meaning of "alcoholic" in Slavic languages since a preservative cannot be used to characterize the specific properties of a drink. This particular beer recipe feature was so widely known to brewers that there was simply no point in mentioning it, and it ended up in the historical document by accident due to the chronicler’s ignorance.

Scientists believe that there must be one common source of borrowing and some of them see it in the language of the Bulgar people, who never existed (see Volga Bulgars), whose descendants are supposedly the modern Chuvashes (cf. Chuv xămla “hops”). Others doubt the possibility of penetration of the Chuvash word far in Central Europe. Of course, the reason for doubt is given by the idea of the late appearance of the Chuvashes in space west of the Ural. However, existed close adjacency of the Chuvashes with the Indo-European and later with the Finno-Ugric peoples could explain the origin of the names of both hops and some weak alcoholic beverages in many modern European languages.

Many scientists have long believed that the Slavic word braga for home-brewed beer was borrowed from Celtic (cf. Irl. braich “malt”, Cymr. brag “the same”, bragod “mixed beer and honey malt”). M. Vasmer has never seen such a possibility and connected the Slavic word with the Chuvash pεraGa “pomace” (formerly “half-beer, liquid beer") having matches to the names of the weak liquor boza/buza in other Turkic languages (VASMER MAX, 1964: 205). In fact the Old Chuvash *bĕraga could be got by the Celtic language, directly or through Illyrian, which area shared the habitats of the Proto-Chuvashes and Celts for some time (see the map of the second Indo-European ). The Illyrian language has not survived, but a similar word could have. Thus, it is possible that the initial hypothesis of borrowing the Slavic word braga from Celtic must seem fair, although it is possible that the Slavs borrowed it directly from the Proto-Chuvashes when entered into contact with them.

You can look at some similarities of the Turkic words not only with Slavic names of the braga, but also with the Germanic names of beer (cf. NGmc. bjorr, Ger. Bier, Eng. beer), which origin is still unclear. Germanic tribes in the 2nd mill thousand BC. populated the habitats of Illyrians and Italics, and thus came into contact with the Proto-Chuvashes, which is evidenced by place names in Western Ukraine, and in the Chuvash-German lexical correspondences. Germans have learned from the Proto-Chuvashes to brew beer and with beer, they borrowed its name. Taking into account the existence of the fricative trill rz in the Turkic and Indo-European languages, a protoform of words for calling low alcohol drinks had to sound like *borz-, from which evolved all names of beer mentioned above.

The Proto-Chuvashes had another weak alcoholic drink, which technology was different from the technology of brewing because there is a Chuv kărchama "home-brewed beer" and Tat. kärchemä “sour katyk” (the national drink). The word was got by Slavic languages and adopted in another, but the closest sense (Rus, Ukr., Blr. korchma, Bulg. krъchma, Pol karczma, Cz, Slvk. krčma, Lith. karčiama and other "public house"). The form of the Lithuanian word confirms its connection with the Chuvash. A. Bruckner pointed out that in Church Slavonic the word meant not only "tavern", but also an intoxicating drink (BRÜCKNER ALEKSANDER. 1996: 220). The borrowing happened then when the Slavs were neighbors of the Proto-Chuvashes after the departure of the main part of the Germans in the west. Indeed, the absence of such words in the Germanic languages provides a reason to say that this drink came later. If beer needs hops, the receipt of home brew can be made with dairy products, as occurs in the making of koumiss. The last drink was not common in the Indo-Europeans, perhaps because the horse did not play a big role in them. As follows from our studies, the view of Indo-European affiliation of the tribes of Corded Ware, rapidly expanding across Europe due to the use of horses, is wrong.

It is known that another name for beer also existed in Eastern Europe, traces of which are available in Germanic and Iranian languages (Eng ale, NGmc. öl, Osset äluton and others “beer”). This word has an Indo-European origin and dates back to the root *alu-, which is part of words meaning 1.“bitter”, “sour” and 2. “magic”. However, similar names are absent in other Indo-European languages (Lithuanian borrowed it from some Germanic), so its appearance should enjoy a later time.