New Delhi: Two new studies published in Nature have used thousands of ancient human genomes to reconstruct the migrations that may have helped spread Celtic and Germanic languages across Europe. The findings offer fresh insights into the origins of these language groups, tracing population movements that broadly correspond with archaeological and historical evidence.
The studies analysed genetic data from more than 4,700 ancient individuals. Together, they examine how migrations and changes in population ancestry may have shaped Europe’s linguistic landscape, though the researchers caution that language spread does not always require people to move.
The first study, titled ‘Tracing the spread of Celtic languages using ancient genomics’, analysed the genomes of 4,587 ancient individuals from Bronze and Iron Age Europe between 2,800 and 3,200 years ago.
Celtic languages, which include Welsh, Irish and Gaelic, were once spoken across much of Europe, including present-day France, Spain and Italy. Today, they are largely confined to the continent’s Atlantic fringes.
Researchers identified three major population movements that could have contributed to their spread. These included the arrival of Steppe-related ancestry, migration from southwestern Europe into Britain during the Bronze Age, and a later westward expansion from eastern central Europe.
The researchers consider the final movement, associated with the Late Bronze Age Knovíz-Urnfield populations, the most plausible explanation for the widespread distribution of Celtic languages during the Iron Age.
How Germanic languages spread
The second study, ‘Tracing the spread of Germanic languages using ancient genomics’, examined 712 newly sequenced ancient genomes alongside 4,009 previously published ones. The Germanic languages include English, German and Dutch, which are spoken by more than one billion people worldwide.
A team of geneticists, linguists, and archaeologists led by the University of Copenhagen and Leiden University conducted both studies.
Researchers identified a population that entered Sweden around 4,000 years ago, probably from the Baltic region. Its ancestry became widespread across Scandinavia over the following centuries, potentially helping introduce early Germanic languages to the region.
Around 1,650 years ago, another migration carried related ancestry southwards into areas of present-day Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. The researchers also found this ancestry among Anglo-Saxon individuals in Britain and Langobards in southern Europe.
The study identified a further movement of people from present-day Germany back into Scandinavia, coinciding with the emergence of Old Norse, the predecessor of modern Scandinavian languages.
“It’s a good tracer dye for the spread of Germanic languages,” Guus Kroonen, a historical linguist and co-author of both studies, told Nature.
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Can DNA reveal the history of languages?
The findings help connect genetic evidence with linguistic and archaeological theories, but they cannot establish that particular populations spoke a specific language solely from their ancestry.
As Kroonen pointed out, “You can easily adopt a new language without changing your genes.” Hugh McColl, a population geneticist and co-author, similarly noted that researchers wanted to understand, “How does this change occur? How does the range swap through time?”
The researchers argue that combining genetics with archaeological and linguistic evidence offers a more complete picture of Europe’s past. The studies also illustrate how migration, cultural exchange and language adoption together shaped the continent’s linguistic history.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)