THE DEATH OF WORLDS: Why Some Languages Die Out While Others Dominate

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There are around 7,000 languages in the world today. Complex systems of communication are considered a key human characteristic. That is why it is no coincidence that people seek answers to the question «who are we and where do we come from?» by exploring the origins and development of past and present languages. Why do some languages die out while others dominate? How is this connected to human evolution, and what does it mean for our future?

THE SEARCH FOR THE INDO-EUROPEAN HOMELAND

odern languages are grouped into approximately 140 families. However, only five of them dominate globally: Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Niger-Congo, Afro-Asiatic, and Austronesian. Nearly every second person on Earth speaks a language belonging to the Indo-European family, whose 12 major branches were formed across a vast territory stretching from Northwest China to Western Europe.

Due to historical circumstances, their origin became a «Holy Grail» for many intellectuals. Alongside other planets, numerous regions laid claim to the prestigious title of the homeland of the Indo-European languages — from subpolar regions in the north to Antarctica in the south, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The situation changed dramatically thanks to Sir William Jones — an outstanding British philologist, polyglot, and pioneer of Indology. While serving as a judge in colonial India, Jones in 1786 drew attention to the striking similarities between Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek. Take, for example, the Sanskrit word for «mother» — mata — and the Latin mater; the verb «to fly» in Sanskrit — pátami, in Greek — pétomai, and in Latin — petō.

Jones wrote: «No philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists». He believed that the expansion of a single Proto-Indo-European language had begun in the territory of modern-day Iran. However, Jones himself did not yet use the term «Indo-European language». It was introduced in 1813 by Thomas Young.

IN SEARCH OF THE ARYAN HOMELAND

Thomas Young knew 13 languages. A gifted physicist and engineer, he became renowned as an equally talented philologist and Orientalist. In particular, he made a significant contribution to the decipherment of ancient Egyptian inscriptions, including two texts on the famous Rosetta Stone. Young suggested that the homeland of the Indo-European language was not in Iran, but in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent, in Kashmir. Today, many scholars treat this idea with skepticism.

In the 1920s, in the valley of the Indus River, on the territory of present-day Pakistan, the ruins of an ancient civilization that emerged in the 4th millennium BCE were discovered. It possessed a developed writing system that remains undeciphered. It is clear, however, that its authors did not speak Sanskrit or any other Indo-European language. Although some linguists sympathetic to Hindu nationalism, of course, think otherwise. Ideology has repeatedly been used to «assist» science.

Between 1870 and 1945, the search for the Indo-European homeland shifted sharply toward Europe. For example, the Nazi regime in Germany endorsed Scandinavia for this role, claiming it as the place of origin of the «pure Aryans» who supposedly spoke Indo-European languages. Advocates of a European origin of the Indo-Europeans pointed to the features of the Lithuanian language. They also indicated the region east of the Baltic, while the Linear Pottery culture (5500–4500 BCE) pointed to the Danube basin.

GENETICS PROVIDES CLUES

In the 1960s, a theory gained prominence that placed the homeland of the Indo-European languages north of the Black and Caspian Seas. This theory has a powerful ally — genetics. In 2015, DNA extracted from the graves of people belonging to the Yamnaya culture, who lived in the Pontic-Caspian steppe 8,000–3,000 years ago, was analyzed. From this region, the «Yamnaya» migrated both eastward and westward. Around 5,000 years ago, they moved into Europe and replaced about 90% of the existing European gene pool with their own.

Since then, most European men, as well as millions of men in Central and South Asia, have carried a Y chromosome that originated in the Pontic-Caspian steppe. No subsequent mass migrations, the fall of the Roman Empire, the Black Death, or the world wars were able to alter the genetic, cultural, or linguistic legacy of 5,000 years ago.

If we could «rewind» the languages spoken in Iceland, Ireland, England, Spain, Norway, Germany, Lithuania, Italy, Greece, Ukraine, Iran, and India, they would all converge into a single common tongue — the language of the Yamnaya culture. It is unlikely that we will ever know exactly how it sounded, but we can state with reasonable confidence: language has played a more significant role in the evolution of human societies than nationalism, empires, and wars.

WHY LANGUAGES DISAPPEAR

From 1884 to 1915, Namibia was a German colony, after which it was occupied by South Africa. In 1990, the country gained independence. When choosing an official language, the government rejected German and Afrikaans due to their associations with oppression. Local African languages, including Oshiwambo, spoken by half of Namibia’s population, were also rejected in order to avoid provoking ethnic division. As a result, English — spoken by just 0.8% of the population — became the official language of Namibia, used in schools, government institutions, and even religious services.

The idea was that by learning English, Namibians would feel like citizens of a unified state and be able to communicate freely with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the linguistic experiment did not succeed: decades later, only 3.4% of Namibians speak English. It is often argued that the reason lies in the shortage of English-speaking schoolteachers. However, considering that even epidemics and wars sometimes fail to wipe languages off the face of the earth, this is unlikely to be the only cause.

Researchers believe that political and cultural complexity create the environment in which some languages somehow survive while others do not. Namibia’s unexpected focus on English may pose a long-term threat to its indigenous languages, but for now, that outcome remains distant. In Australia, however, the dominance of English has led to the extinction — or imminent disappearance — of 93% of Indigenous languages. According to UNESCO, fourteen years ago, 196 languages and dialects in India were endangered; today, the number has risen to 600.

THE DEATH OF WORLDS

The disappearance of languages is alarming because with the loss of each one, a unique «worldview» fades into oblivion. A study of biodiversity in the Amazon, North America, and New Guinea found that the local names of about 75% of 12,000 plants were «linguistically unique». Many of these plants hold enormous potential in the treatment of cardiovascular and mental illnesses, as well as in providing assistance during pregnancy.

The knowledge of how to use medicinal plants had been part of collective wisdom for hundreds or even thousands of years. But when the plants remain while the language dies and loses their names, the knowledge of their properties and possibilities disappears along with the words. Most likely, this «linguistic amnesia» extends far beyond knowledge of the plant world.

Take, for example, whistled languages, which exist on every inhabited continent. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that whistling does not strain the vocal cords and produces powerful volume within a narrow frequency range. You can understand the meaning of a sentence in whistled speech at a distance ten times greater than if someone were shouting loudly. And how many other extraordinary human capacities are lost together with dying languages!

For the sake of fairness, it must be said that there are also cases in which dead languages are revived. Manchu — the imperial language spoken in China from 1644 to 1912 — is now taught at universities across the country. Māori became an official language of New Zealand in 1987 and is now taught in schools. Gaelic was granted official status in Scotland in 2005 and now peacefully coexists with English on Scottish road signs.

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This material is a brief overview of three books published in 2025. They do not provide a definitive answer to the question of the Indo-European homeland, but they reveal to us the fascinating complexity of languages from a wide range of perspectives — including linguistics, archaeology, genetics, and anthropology. If you wish to delve deeper into this remarkable world, you may turn to the following publications: Laura Spinney, Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global / William Collins, 2025; J. P. Mallory, The Indo-Europeans Rediscovered: How a Scientific Revolution Is Rewriting Their Story / Thames & Hudson, 2025; Lorna Gibb, Rare Tongues: The Secret Stories of Hidden Languages / Atlantic, 2025.

Original research: