On the one hand, it is remarkable that a language from far away such as Hindi is related to our languages, but a language in our neighbourhood such Hungarian isn’t. On the other hand, it is remarkable that the non-Indo-European languages in Europe do not form a block, but are interspersed into the landscape. In some cases, we have historical evidence which explains the presence of non-Indo-European languages in Europe, in others, especially in Basque, we don’t. Can you think of a reason why Hungarian, a language spoken in the middle of Europe and surrounded by Indo-European languages, may be a “stranger”? Can you think of a second, related reason which is sometimes advocated for the case of Basque?
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