this all sounds very scientific. but i do not see the connection between dna and language. the authors even say so themselves:
DNA sequences do not tell us directly which language people spoke
but then this limitation is rapidly paved over by "facts".
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.
i do not doubt that this might have happened. but this sole correlation of dna with the still hypothetical reconstruction of a germanic language of 2000 bc is not convincing. hypothetical languages are always very flexible. but here the researchers fail to connect them to other expressions of human culture.
but then i nevery really understood the methodology of reconstruction of ancient languages and how to pin dates to the different stages of their developments ...
#history #archaeology #language #science #migration
