Linguists have long sought to trace the origins of Indo-European languages, a linguistic family encompassing over 400 languages spoken by nearly half the world's population, including Romance languages like Spanish, English, Persian, German, Russian, and Hindi. Research suggests these languages stem from a common tongue spoken on the Indo-European continent thousands of years ago, evolving into various forms over time. But what was this language like, and where did it originate?
A study published in Nature claims to have found a possible answer, identifying what researchers call the "missing link" in the history of Indo-European languages. The research, led by the Universities of Vienna and Harvard, focuses on the analysis of 435 individuals found at various archaeological sites across the Eurasian continent, dating back to 6400-2000 BC. Studying these remains revealed a previously unknown prehistoric population that lived between 4500 and 3500 BC in the area between the North Caucasus and the south of the Volga River, currently the border between Ukraine and Russia. According to the researchers, this population could have been the cradle of the mother tongue that gave rise to all Indo-European languages.
Experts claim this group is the best candidate found to date to explain the origin of this vast linguistic family. "The discovery of this missing link in Indo-European history marks a turning point in over 200 years of research to reconstruct the origins of Indo-Europeans and the routes by which these peoples spread across Europe and Asia," states Ron Pinhasi, professor at the University of Vienna and lead author of the study.
Previously, two main theories existed regarding the origin of Indo-European languages. The first, known as the steppe theory, suggests Indo-European languages originated in the Yamnaya culture, a civilization of nomadic pastoralists from the Caspian region who spread across Europe and Central Asia around 5,000 years ago. The second, the Anatolian hypothesis, posits that the seed of Indo-European languages came from present-day Turkey, originating around 8,000 years ago during the Neolithic period. In both cases, scholars argue these theories don't fully align with available scientific information, as genetic information doesn't entirely reflect these ancient population dispersal pathways.
The finding presented in Nature could change everything, as it proposes a middle ground between the two hypotheses and manages to fit all the pieces of the puzzle. Researchers assert that this theory aligns with both genetic and archaeological perspectives. On one hand, the newly discovered population fits the information about where the common seed of Indo-European languages could have originated. On the other hand, it also confirms that the genetic trace of this group can be found in both the Yamnaya culture and the Neolithic inhabitants of Anatolia, thus confirming the dispersal of this population and, consequently, the mechanism of diffusion of their language to different parts of the Indo-European continent.