A team of scientists led by Quentin Atkinson, a specialist in evolutionary biology from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, conducted a study analyzing more than 100 modern and ancient languages using computer methods. After that they concluded that Anatolia (the territory of modern Turkey) is the birthplace of Indo-European languages, which nowadays are spoken by more than 3 billion people.
According to the new theory, the origin of languages began 8-9,5 thousand years ago in Anatolia, coinciding with the beginning of the spread of agriculture in the region. Previously, linguists adhered to the theory that the first language speakers were nomadic cattle herders of the Black Sea region about 4,000 years ago and that it was they who spread the languages across Europe and Asia.
"This discovery offers great prospects for creating linguistic maps, allowing us to link language branches by time and location. After that, we will be able to reconstruct historical events given specific locations, natural features and environments," Atkinson said.