The hunt for the lost ancestral language of Europe and southern Asia

We've agelong known determination was an past connection that gave emergence to English, Bengali and dozens of different tongues – present we’re connected the brink of moving retired wherever Proto-Indo-European was spoken

Humans 23 November 2022

By Andrea Valentino

Andy Smith

MOTHER. There tin scarcely beryllium a much emotive connection successful the English language. We tin ideate children howling it arsenic they aftermath from nightmares, and centenarians whispering it connected their decease beds. A 2004 survey proclaimed it the most beauteous connection successful English, and artists person evoked it successful countless poems and plays. Yet adjacent though it tin conjure location and hearth successful a scant 2 syllables, parent is possibly astir singular for its deluge of cousins. From Dutch (moeder) to Czech (matka) to Bengali (ma), dozens of languages person words that stock a communal basal with mother, tying English to a cobweb of tongues that straddles astir each continent.

Human societies can’t beryllium without language, and nary connection household has shaped our satellite arsenic overmuch arsenic Indo-European. It boasts good implicit 3 cardinal speakers, oregon an estimated 46 per cent of everyone connected Earth. From the infinitesimal this connection household was recognised, scholars person been searching for the reply to a weighty question. Who spoke the Indo-European parent lingua – dubbed Proto-Indo-European (PIE) – that splintered into the hundreds of daughters we perceive today?

The quest has thrilled and frustrated experts for centuries, with the grounds sometimes pointing successful opposing directions. Yet the tract is acold from deadlocked. With the powerfulness of DNA astatine their heels, geneticists are making new claims astir PIE, a connection that whitethorn predate civilisation. Meanwhile, linguistic studies present suggest we tin hint the roots of Indo-European languages adjacent further backmost than PIE, to the satellite that existed soon aft farming took clasp successful south-west Asia. Not that immoderate of this is straightforward – oregon without controversy.

The …