The 'Mother' of Indo-European Languages was Born More Than 5,500 Years Ago

The study of languages can tell researchers quite a bit about language's origins. Now, though, they may have tracked down the ancestor of Indo-European languages, which was spoken thousands of years ago. A new study reveals a bit more about the predecessor of English, Greek and Hindi, which may tell researchers a bit more about the languages of today.

When it comes to tracking down a common ancestor in language, researchers look at the languages of today. They examine similar words between languages and from studying them, are able to find a common root.

In this case, the researchers used data from over 150 languages. More specifically, they analyzed 200 sets of words from living and dead Indo-European languages. They determined how quickly these words changed over time through statistical modeling, and found when the languages diverged. By examining these languages and this data, the researchers found that the common ancestor of Indo-European languages originated between 5,500 to 6,500 years ago.

The findings actually provide new support for the "steppe hypothesis," also known as the "Kurgan hypothesis." This proposes that Indo-European languages first spread with cultural developments in animal husbandry around 4,500 to 3,500 BCE.

The findings reveal a bit more about the evolution of languages. More specifically, it's one of the first quantitatively-based academic reports in support of the steppe hypothesis, and the first to use a model with "ancestry constrains," which more directly incorporates previously discovered relationships between languages.

While the findings do show quite a bit about Indo-European languages, they could also be used in other studies. In fact, the same methods could be used to study the origins of other language families, such as Afro-Asiatic and Sino-Tibetan languages.

The findings can be found online.

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