ABSTRACT
Employing historical linguistic data poses problems not unlike those raised with molecular anthropology. Linguistic reconstructions concerning what is now known as Common (or proto-) Slavic are ultimately reflections of present-day language descriptions. In the absence of hard evidence of language use, various scenarios concerning Common Slavic must be regarded as hypothetical attempts to express historical relationships between people and language(s). Any such attempt involves a great degree of idealization, as hypotheses will always remain unverifiable. The association of (Common) Slavic with an “intentional matrix“ does not imply that the koiné was the expression of a certain way of being (in the world) or of a certain culture. If (Common) Slavic was a koiné, then there was definitely no model of (early) Slavic culture, because the purpose of koineization was to make communication possible in a multitude and great variety of cultural settings.
