Origin of indo-European languages

2004/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Giza zientziak

Despite its popularity years ago, the glotochronological technique of dating ancient languages has been recovered with the help of the use of computational and statistical methods. In a study on the origin of Indo-European languages, linguistic data have been analysed, seeking the relationship between philogenia-philology, that is, using the methods used to analyze the evolutionary relationships between species and the information stored in the DNA to locate the evolutionary relations between languages.

(Photo: R. R. Carton).

Comparing the possible evolutionary trees obtained with known historical facts, it has been tried to calculate when the proolengua was extended, base of the Indo-European languages. Comparing the data obtained with the main hypotheses, they coincide with the theory that 8,000-9,500 years ago Anatolia was extended by agriculture.

Although this type of method has provoked debate, researchers hope that it will contribute new ideas among those who investigate the relationship between life and language.