How Ancient Languages Spread: A 10,000-Year Review

Farming helped to spread languages.

10,000 years ago people started farming and these helped the languages to spread to new places. Studies showed that people moved to different places for farming purposes and language was one of the companions they had. For example, around 9,000 years ago, languages like Japanese, Korean, and Turkic started in eastern China, here is where rice and Millet farming first appeared.

Hints from Nature

Researchers used evidence of ancient DNA, old tools and other findings to understand the language history. They found out the common words related to farming and also, they understood, people moved around with the language with them.

Europe’s ancient ‘Super language’

Scientists found the evidence of ‘Super language’ in Europe from 10,000 years ago. They believe that some of the simple words like ‘I’, ’you’ and ‘mother’ may originate from this language, showing that the people had connected each other even back ago.

Language Migration of Indo-European

In the grasslands of Eurasia, Indo-European languages started. Herders migrated to new places with their languages, about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. This changed the speaking style of Europe, after the spread of farming.

Why it’s important

Learning about the language spread helps us to know about the human history, in addition to that, we understand that how farming and communication are related to each other. It’s interesting that some of ancient words we are still using and it proves how deep and lasting language can be.



Conclusion

With the help of language science, archaeology, and genetics, we are learning how the language moved with people thousands of years ago. It shows how closely the languages are linked with human journey.