Based on DNA analyzes, international scientists have found new indications about the spread of the Hungarian, the Finnish and other uralian languages.
According to this, the group whose offspring later also brought the uralian languages to Finland, Hungary or Estonia, should have formed in Siberia 4500 to 3200 years ago and then were oriented to the West, according to the “Nature” magazine. Nowadays, uralic languages are spoken by North Russia to parts of the Baltic states and Scandinavia to Hungary and Burgenland. The combination of genetic data and language theories has been unveiled in recent decades when it comes to investigating the historical and current spread of languages.
DNA -Material of 180 people examined
An international team for the Co-Orboetors of the Study, Leonid Vyazov from the University of Ostrau (Czech Republic), Ron Pinhasi from the University of Vienna and David Reich of the Harvard Medical School (US) has now tried this in relation to the Uralian and Jenissei language group. The latter used to be widespread in Siberia, but today is only used by a handful of people.
The genetic material investigated comes from 180 people who lived from the stone era about 11,000 years ago to the Bronze Age about 4,000 years ago. “A language cannot be read directly from, but if genetic origin, archaeological context and language geography come together, striking conclusions are possible,” Vyazov is quoted in a broadcast from the University of Vienna.
Traces still detectable today
Very exciting: the so-called Jakutien group, which lived in northeastern Siberia about 4500 years ago, not only left genetic footprints for the speakers of Uralian languages around the Baltic Sea. On the way to the West, they also had an influence on the mysterious Seima turbino culture that is known for their bronze artifacts, which were probably created in the Altai Mountains and spread to Europe with a pot.
But that is not all: Central Asia appears to be an old melting pot of cultures in this story. Different groups lived here, knowing knowledge, genes – and possibly even words. Indo-Iranian loan words in uralic languages can arise in this multicultural heyday. The almost forgotten Jenissei language group also gets new attention. Her roots suspected researchers in a mysterious “CIS-Baikal” group, which formed large parts of Siberia more than 5000 years ago.
Source: Krone
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