Language trees with sampled ancestors support a hybrid model for the origin of Indo-European languages

Abstract

Almost half the world’s population speaks a language of the Indo-European language family. It remains unclear, however, where this family’s common ancestral language (Proto-Indo-European) was initially spoken and when and why it spread through Eurasia. The “Steppe” hypothesis posits an expansion out of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, no earlier than 6500 years before present (yr B.P.), and mostly with horse-based pastoralism from ~5000 yr B.P. An alternative “Anatolian” or “farming” hypothesis posits that Indo-European dispersed with agriculture out of parts of the Fertile Crescent, beginning as early as ~9500 to 8500 yr B.P. Ancient DNA (aDNA) is now bringing valuable new perspectives, but these remain only indirect interpretations of language prehistory. In this study, we tested between the time-depth predictions of the Anatolian and Steppe hypotheses, directly from language data. We report a new framework for the chronology and divergence sequence of Indo-European, using Bayesian phylogenetic methods applied to an extensive new dataset of core vocabulary across 161 Indo-European languages.

Authors

Paul Heggarty, Cormac Anderson, Matthew Scarborough, Benedict King, Remco R. Bouckaert, Lechosław Jocz, Martin Joachim Kümmel, Thomas Jügel, Britta Irslinger, Roland Pooth, Henrik Liljegren, Richard F. Strand, Geoffrey Haig, Martin Macák, Ronald I. Kim, Erik Anonby, Tijmen Pronk, Oleg Belyaev, Tonya Kim Dewey-Findell, Matthew Boutilier, Cassandra Freiberg, Robert Tegethoff, Matilde Serangeli, Nikos Liosis, Krzysztof Stroński, Kim Schulte, Ganesh Kumar Gupta, Wolfgang Haak, Johannes Krause, Quentin D. Atkinson, Simon J. Greenhill, Denise Kühnert, Russell D. Gray

Citation

Heggarty PH et al. 2023. Language trees with sampled ancestors support a hybrid model for the origin of Indo-European languages. Science, 381, abg0818.

Published 28 July 2023

@article{Heggarty2023,
  title = {Language trees with sampled ancestors support a hybrid model for the origin of Indo-European languages},
  author = {Heggarty, Paul and Anderson, Cormac and Scarborough, Matthew and King, Benedict and Bouckaert, Remco R. and Jocz, Lechosław and Kümmel, Martin Joachim and Jügel, Thomas and Irslinger, Britta and Pooth, Roland and Liljegren, Henrik and Strand, Richard F. and Haig, Geoffrey and Macák, Martin and Kim, Ronald I. and Anonby, Erik and Pronk, Tijmen and Belyaev, Oleg and Dewey-Findell, Tonya Kim and Boutilier, Matthew and Freiberg, Cassandra and Tegethoff, Robert and Serangeli, Matilde and Liosis, Nikos and Stroński, Krzysztof and Schulte, Kim and Gupta, Ganesh Kumar and Haak, Wolfgang and Krause, Johannes and Atkinson, Quentin D. and Greenhill, Simon J. and Kühnert, Denise and Gray, Russell D.},
  journal = {Science},
  volume = {381},
  number = {6656},
  publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)},
  year = {2023},
  doi = {10.1126/science.abg0818},
  url = {https://simon.net.nz/articles/indoeuropean-hybrid-origins/},
}

135 citations · FWCI 268.0 · top 1% cited · OpenAlex

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