Indo-European The
Anatolian hypothesis states that
Proto-Indo-Europeans lived in
Anatolia throughout the
Neolithic period, and that the spread of the Indo-European language was associated with the
Neolithic Revolution of the 7th-6th millennium BC. It claims that the
Proto-Indo-European language spread from
Asia Minor to
Europe around 7000 BC with the Neolithic Revolution and peacefully mixed with indigenous peoples. Therefore, most Neolithic Europeans spoke an Indo-European language, and later migrations replaced it with another Indo-European language. However, there is currently more evidence that supports the
Kurgan hypothesis, which is another explanation for the origin and dispersal of the Indo-European languages.
Bantu The Bantu languages descend from a common
Proto-Bantu language, which is believed to have been spoken in what is now
Cameroon in
Central Africa. An estimated 2,500–3,000 years ago (1000 BC to 500 BC), speakers of the Proto-Bantu language began a series of migrations eastward and southward, carrying agriculture with them. This
Bantu expansion came to dominate Sub-Saharan Africa east of Cameroon, an area where
Bantu peoples now constitute nearly the entire population. Some other sources estimate the Bantu Expansion started closer to ~5,000 years ago.
Afro-Asiatic There are two hypotheses about the
origin of the Proto-Afroasiatic languages, the Levant theory and the African continental theory. According to the theory of a homeland in Levant, the distribution was expanded to Africa in conjunction with the spread of agriculture. Terrazas Mata et al. (2013) have argued that the Proto-Afro-Asiatic speakers would have originated in the Middle East and subsequently migrated into the areas of North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. There are however many scholars who accept an African phylum language origin since five of the six Afro-Asiatic subfamilies are spoken on the African continent, and only one in Asia.
Christopher Ehret, S.O. Y. Keita, and Paul Newman have also argued that archaeology does not indicate a spread of migrating farmers into northern Africa, but rather a gradual incorporation of animal husbandry into
indigenous foraging cultures.
Nostratic Bomhard (2008) suggested that the Proto-
Nostratic language differentiated with the onset of the
Levant Neolithic Revolution in 8,000 BC, and spread across
Fertile Crescent to
Caucasus (
Proto-Kartvelian), beyond
Egypt and the
Red Sea to
Horn of Africa (
Proto-Afro-Asiatic), to
Iranian Plateau (Proto-
Elamo-Dravidian), and to
Central Asia (Proto-
Eurasiatic, then
Proto-Indo-European,
Proto-Altaic, and
Proto-Uralic in 5,000 BC).
Elamo-Dravidian Elamo-Dravidian hypothetical language family is often associated with the spread of farming from the
Fertile Crescent to the
Indus Valley Civilization. However, there is some disagreement regarding the linguistic relationship of
Elamite with
Dravidian languages. Genetic studies have detected a genetic link between
Neolithic Iran and
South Asians.
Transeurasian Martine Robbeets "Transeurasian" model, based on the Macro-
Altaic languages (
Turkic,
Mongolic,
Tungusic,
Japonic, and
Koreanic), argues that Proto-Transeurasian was spoken in
Xinglongwa culture in the west
Liao river basin in 6th millennium BC, and differentiated to the daughter languages along with the spread of
millet agriculture.
Japonic Many scholars believe that the
Japonic language was brought from the
Korean Peninsula to the
Japanese archipelago around 700-300 BC by the
Yayoi people who cultivated
wet rice. According to
Martine Robbeets (2017), Japonic language originated from Proto-"
Transeurasian" language (the common ancestor of
Mongolic,
Turkic,
Tungusic,
Japonic, and
Koreanic), located in the
Xinglongwa culture in the 6th millennium BC. She suggest Proto-Transeurasian people cultivated millet, but after branching to the "Japono-Koreanic" language family in the
Liaodong Peninsula, Proto-Japonic was influenced by Para-
Austronesian who cultivated wet rice in the
Shandong Peninsula in the 2nd-3rd millennium BC, borrowed a large amount of vocabulary mainly related to agriculture, and then went south on the
Korean Peninsula and entered the
Japanese archipelago in the 1st millennium BC. It is also proposed that the distribution of Japanese has expanded with the expansion of wet rice cultivation in the Japanese archipelago.
Austronesian It is proposed that the spread of
Austronesian languages was driven by farming.
Sino-Tibetan Since 2019, phylogenetic studies of 50
Sino-Tibetan languages that have existed from ancient times to the present day have proved the hypothesis that the language family expanded with agricultural transmission. It is concluded that the Sino-Tibetan language family originated from the
millet farming people located in North China 7,200 years ago.
Austroasiatic Several theories exist about the
Urheimat of
Austroasiatic languages; the
Red River Delta, the
Mekong River region, the
Zhu River region, the
Yangtze River region, and the north of the
Yangtze River. Proto-Austro-Asiatic speaking people were farmers who cultivated
rice and
millet and raised
dogs,
pigs,
chickens, etc., but without millet cultivation (with only rice cultivation and some livestock farming), around 4500 BC, it reached
Indochina and replaced native hunter-gatherers.
Uto-Aztecan It is suggested that
Uto-Aztecan speakers expanded to
Mesoamerica and Southwestern
US with corn farming. ==References==