New language database narrows search for first speakers of Indo-European

Across Eurasia people utter similar words for foot : pied in a Parisian café, pāvn (پاؤں ) in a Karachi bazaar, pṓda in the mountains of Tajikistan. For the number two , Hindi speakers say do while ancient Hittites likely said dān . Scholars have long agreed these languages, including English, are all members of the so-called Indo-European family, spoken by well over 3 billion people today. The languages share an ancient mother tongue, but debates persist over who first spoke it and how they cemented their far-flung linguistic legacy across Eurasia. Now, a new study pulling together the largest-yet reliable database of Indo-European words with common roots published today in Science , claims to reconcile the possibilities: Before 8000 years ago, Fertile Crescent farmers spoke and began to spread Indo-European variants, which nomadic herders picked up and carried across the northern steppe roughly 2000 years later. Other experts say the new study, though welcome, is unlikely to completely resolve a long-standing debate. “Some aspects of the tree’s branching structure and chronology are improbable or impossible,” says Chundra Cathcart, a University of Zürich linguist who was not involved with the study. Still, he says the data collected for the study are “really, really top notch” and will be “an invaluable resource to at least a generation of researchers....
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research