Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European Language Family

Bouckaert, Remco; Lemey, Philippe; Dunn, Michael; Greenhill, Simon J.; Alekseyenko, Alexander V.; Drummond, Alexei J.; Gray, Russell D.; Suchard, Marc A.; Atkinson, Quentin D.

doi:10.1126/science.1219669

articleScienceAug 23, 2012GREEN OA

Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European Language Family

RBRemco Bouckaert PLPhilippe Lemey MDMichael Dunn SJSimon J. Greenhill AVAlexander V. Alekseyenko

University of Auckland · Rega Institute for Medical Research · +8 more institutions

PubMed

Indexed incrossrefpubmed

Abstract

There are two competing hypotheses for the origin of the Indo-European language family. The conventional view places the homeland in the Pontic steppes about 6000 years ago. An alternative hypothesis claims that the languages spread from Anatolia with the expansion of farming 8000 to 9500 years ago. We used Bayesian phylogeographic approaches, together with basic vocabulary data from 103 ancient and contemporary Indo-European languages, to explicitly model the expansion of the family and test these hypotheses. We found decisive support for an Anatolian origin over a steppe origin. Both the inferred timing and root location of the Indo-European language trees fit with an agricultural expansion from Anatolia…

Citation impact

809

total citations

FWCI: 257.14
Percentile: 100%
References: 52

Citations per year

Authors

9

Topics & keywords

Topics

Keywords

Indo-Pacific
Indo-European languages
Linguistics
Biology
Philosophy
Ecology

No related works found for this paper.