The languages still uttered around Europe today can be traced back to the prehistoric migrations of people around 5,200 years ago. That’s according to a new preprint paper that has looked at the link between the early evolution of Indo-European languages and genetic ancestry in Europe during the Bronze Age.

Most languages spoken in Europe are part of the Indo-European family of languages (with some exceptions, like Basque). This includes the Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, Celtic, and Hellenic languages, and more. 

It’s thought that the emergence and spread of this broad language family has a close relationship with the large-scale human migrations that started around 5,200 years ago from the Western Steppe, a region of grassy plains around modern-day Ukraine, southern Russia, and Kazakhstan. However, the exact nature of this connection isn’t fully agreed upon, especially for the languages of Southern Europe such as Italian, French, Spanish, Greek, and Balkan languages 

To unknot this thorny relationship, a huge international team of scientists sequenced the genetics of 314 ancient people buried in the Mediterranean and surrounding regions, spanning from 5,200 to 2,100 years ago. They also used strontium isotope analyses on 224 of these individuals, a technique that can reveal the geographical origins and movement of ancient people by comparing the strontium isotopic ratios in their bones or teeth to those found in local environments. Their paper discussing the results, yet to be peer-reviewed, revealed some clear relationships between language groups and different populations. 

“The arrival of steppe ancestry in Spain, France and Italy was mediated by Bell Beaker populations of Western Europe, likely contributing to the emergence of the Italic and Celtic languages. In contrast, Armenian and Greek populations acquired steppe ancestry directly from Yamnaya groups of Eastern Europe,” the study authors write.

“These results are consistent with the linguistic Italo-Celtic and Graeco-Armenian hypotheses accounting for the origins of most Mediterranean Indo-European languages of Classical Antiquity,” they added.

However, their analysis couldn’t illuminate the link between all the branches in the Indo-European family tree. By looking at the genetics of Bronze Age populations, the team was not able to uncover a relationship between Germanic and Italo-Celtic languages.

There are also plenty of cases where the genetic portrait wasn’t so clear-cut. For instance, ancient individuals from the Balkans showed a mixed heritage derived from the Bell Beaker, Yamnaya, and Corded Ware cultures. 

Similarly complex, Italian Bronze Age individuals could be divided into several distinct clusters: those in Northern and Central Italy had a Bell Beaker lineage linked to France and Spain, while individuals from the Adriatic coast of Italy showed increased Yamnaya ancestry, similar to Balkan and Greek populations. There was also another cluster of people primarily from Olmo with elevated ancestry from Neolithic farmers, predating these Bronze Age migrations.

As with any study of humanity – from the micro to the macro level – the answers are rarely straightforward, but the combination of genetics, archaeology, and linguistics can bring us a bit closer to understanding our mysterious, intertwined past.