English, German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages are all members of the Germanic language group, spoken by hundreds of millions of people today. But where did these languages come from?
According to two new studies published in Nature, part of the answer may lie in the DNA of thousands of ancient Europeans.
An international team led by the University of Copenhagen and Leiden University analysed DNA from more than 4,500 ancient individuals, including 712 genomes sequenced for the first time. By combining genetics, archaeology and linguistics, the researchers reconstructed major migrations that helped shape the languages spoken across Europe today.
"DNA sequences do not tell us directly which language people spoke. But by combining ancient DNA with linguistic and archaeological evidence, we can begin to trace how languages spread and changed over thousands of years," says Eske Willerslev, senior author of the studies and Professor at Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen.
A previously unknown migration
The researchers identified a previously unknown major migration into Scandinavia around 4,000 years ago.
The newcomers likely arrived from areas around the Baltic Sea and spread rapidly across Scandinavia. Their arrival had a lasting impact on Northern European populations, leading researchers to suggest that they may have carried the earliest ancestor of today's Germanic languages.
This challenges the long-held assumption that the roots of Germanic languages arrived with earlier migrations about 5,000 years ago. Instead, the findings suggest that the linguistic foundations of English, German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages may have spread a thousand years later than previously thought.
"For over a century, scholars have debated when and from where the Germanic languages arrived in Northern Europe. What is exciting is that we can now test some of these ideas directly. We discovered a previously unknown migration that occurred at exactly the time and place where we would expect the earliest form of Germanic to be spreading," says Hugh McColl, Assistant Professor at Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen and lead author of the study.
New clues to Viking origins
The studies also uncovered an unexpected chapter of Scandinavian history. Around 1,500 years ago, several centuries before the Viking Age, people from what is now northern Germany migrated into Denmark and southern Sweden. In some regions, particularly Zealand, they became a major part of the local population.
The migration coincides with the emergence of Old Norse, the language spoken by the Vikings. The findings suggest that many Danish and Swedish Vikings traced much of their ancestry to these newcomers, who were closely related to groups that also contributed to the Anglo-Saxons in Britain.
The discovery may help explain longstanding similarities between Viking and Anglo-Saxon cultures, including shared artistic traditions and closely related languages.
"This migration came as a real surprise. Archaeologists and linguists had not predicted it, but it helps explain several cultural and linguistic connections between Scandinavia and Britain that have puzzled researchers for a long time," says Hugh McColl.
Revisiting the origins of Celtic languages
A companion study used the same approach to tackle another longstanding debate: the origins of the Celtic languages.
Today, Celtic languages survive mainly in places such as Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Brittany. But 2,500 years ago, Celtic languages were spoken across much of Europe. Scholars have debated for more than a century whether they originated along Europe's Atlantic coast or farther east in central Europe.
The ancient DNA points to a movement of people from central Europe around 3,000 years ago, that spread westwards into France, Britain, Ireland and the Iberian Peninsula. According to the researchers, this provides the simplest explanation for the spread of Celtic languages. It also challenges one of the most influential theories, which proposes that Celtic languages originated along the Atlantic coast.
"The question of where Celtic languages came from has been debated for more than 100 years. Ancient DNA gives us an entirely new way to evaluate competing theories and brings important new evidence into the discussion," says Guus Kroonen, Associate Professor of comparative linguistics at Leiden University and the University of Copenhagen.
Bringing genetics, language and history together
The researchers emphasize that DNA alone cannot reveal which language ancient people spoke. Instead, the studies combine genetic evidence with decades of linguistic and archaeological research.
By tracing when and where people moved, the team was able to test long-standing hypotheses about how languages spread across Europe and provide a more detailed picture of the continent's past than ever before.
"These studies show what becomes possible when genetics, archaeology and linguistics are brought together. Questions that have remained unresolved for generations can now be addressed with a level of evidence that was previously impossible," says Kristian Kristiansen, Professor of Archaeology at University of Gothenburg.
