Dutch, English, French and other languages belonging to the Indo-European language family have so many similarities that there must be one common original language. Where this ancient language was once spoken has long been a matter of debate. New Zealand linguists think they have an answer.
Dutch is audibly related to German and English, but also to Greek and even Persian. Together with about 400 other languages, they are part of the Indo-European languages, the largest language family in the world. Linguists suspect that the Indo-European languages can be traced back to one primordial language, the so-called Proto-Indo-European. Exactly how that sounded is difficult to determine, because there are no written sources. However, reasonably reliable reconstructions have been made.
Good day/night!Dieum/nokwtm h'sum!(Source:Alain Corbeau, How and what in Proto-Indo-European)
There are two possible answers to the question of where Proto-Indo-European was ever spoken. It is often believed that this language has its roots in the steppes north of the Black Sea. But a rival theory says the source of this primordial language is in Anatolia, present-day Turkey. This is a long-running discussion that has not yet been finally settled in favor of either camp. A group of New Zealand, Belgian and Dutch linguists have tested both possibilities with a new method.
The group, led by Remco Bouckaert of the University of Auckland, borrowed a method for their research by which biologists determine the relationship between different viruses based on similarities in their DNA. By tracking changes in DNA back in time, biologists can determine the 'primal variant' of such a virus. Instead of species, the linguists compared languages and instead of similarities in DNA, the linguists looked for similarities in words.
These similarities are called 'cognates'. They are different words with a common origin. The extent to which different languages share cognates says something about their kinship. By mapping how cognates arise and disappear, the development can be traced back to a single primal language. About the same as in a family tree.
One of the linguists involved is Michael Dunn of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. “What's new about our research is that we couldn't just figure out when it must have originated Proto-Indo-European,” he says. “By collecting data on where the different languages are spoken – or were spoken, in the case of extinct languages – we were also able to trace the geographic origin of the primordial language for the first time. Those geographical data clearly indicate that Proto-Indo-European originated in Anatolia.”
Hitchhiking with agriculture
According to these researchers, the origins of Proto-Indo-European lie in present-day Turkey. The original language would have been spoken there 7,000 to 10,000 years ago. Clear support for the Anatolia hypothesis. Part of the hypothesis is that the spread of the Indo-European language family paralleled the spread of agriculture, which also spread across Europe via Anatolia at that time.
That's not improbable, because the spread of many other large language families was exactly the same, the researchers write. The results of the linguists also correspond to archaeological finds that map the spread of agriculture.
The hypothesis that our language family comes from the steppes around the Black Sea should not be completely abandoned for the time being. While the researchers suggest that Proto-Indo-European originated in Anatolia, they also point out that agriculture cannot be the only way in which the language family subsequently expanded across Europe. In Western Europe, for example, Indo-European languages did not begin to develop until 2000 to 4500 years ago. That is long after the agricultural revolution took place. And archeology shows that it was precisely in that period that steppe peoples from the east moved towards Europe.