Western and central Eurasia ;Indo-European :The identification of the
Proto-Indo-European homeland has been debated for centuries, but the
steppe hypothesis is now widely accepted, placing it in the
Pontic–Caspian steppe in the late 5th millennium BCE. The leading alternative is the
Anatolian hypothesis, proposing a homeland in
Anatolia in the early 7th millennium BCE. ;
Caucasian :The unrelated
Kartvelian,
Northwest Caucasian (Abkhaz-Adygean) and
Northeast Caucasian (Nakh-Daghestanian) language families are presumed to be indigenous to the
Caucasus. There is extensive evidence for contact between the Caucasian languages, especially
Proto-Kartvelian, and
Proto-Indo-European, indicating that they were spoken in close proximity at least three to four thousand years ago. ; :Although
Dravidian languages are now concentrated in southern India, isolated pockets further north, placenames and
substrate influences on
Indo-Aryan languages indicate that they were once spoken more widely across the
Indian subcontinent. Reconstructed
Proto-Dravidian terms for flora and fauna support the idea that Dravidian is indigenous to India. Proponents of a migration from the northwest cite the location of
Brahui, a hypothesized connection to the undeciphered
Indus script, and claims of
a link to
Elamite. ;Turkic :
Turkic languages are today spoken across an area stretching from northwest China to the edge of Europe, but
Proto-Turkic lexical items about the climate, topography, flora, fauna and subsistence point to a homeland in the taiga-steppe zone of southern Siberia and Mongolia around the
Altai-Sayan region. Early contact with
Mongolic languages also points to this area. Genetic studies suggest that most of the expansion of the language family was due to language replacement rather than migration, but have identified shared elements originating from the South Siberia-Mongolia area. ;Uralic :Inherited tree names seem to indicate an
Uralic homeland to the east of the
Ural Mountains. The internal branching of the family suggests an area between the
Ob River and
Yenisey River. Uralic speakers are not genetically distinguished from their neighbours, but do share a genetic component that is of Siberian origin.
Eastern Eurasia ;Japonic :Most scholars believe that
Japonic was brought to northern
Kyushu from the
Korean Peninsula around 700 to 300 BCE by wet-rice farmers of the
Yayoi culture, spreading from there throughout the
Japanese Archipelago and somewhat later to the
Ryukyu Islands. There is fragmentary placename evidence that
now-extinct Japonic languages were still spoken in central and southern parts of the Korean peninsula several centuries later. ;Koreanic :All modern
Koreanic varieties are descended from the language of
Unified Silla, which ruled the southern two-thirds of the Korean peninsula between the 7th and 10th centuries. Evidence for the earlier linguistic history of the peninsula is extremely sparse. The orthodox view among Korean social historians is that the Korean people migrated to the peninsula from the north, but no archaeological evidence of such a migration has been found. ;Sino-Tibetan :The reconstruction of
Sino-Tibetan is much less developed than for other major families, so its higher-level structure and time depth remain unclear. Proposed homelands and periods include: the upper and middle reaches of the
Yellow River about 4–8 kya, associated with the hypothesis of a top-level branching between Chinese and the rest (most likely); southwestern
Sichuan around 9 kya, associated with the hypothesis that Chinese and Tibetan form a subbranch;
Northeast India (the area of maximal diversity) 9–10 kya. ;Hmong–Mien :The most likely homeland of the
Hmong–Mien languages is in
Southern China between the
Yangtze and
Mekong rivers, but speakers of these languages may have migrated from
Central China as a result of the expansion of the
Han Chinese. ;Kra–Dai :Most scholars locate the homeland of the
Kra–Dai languages in Southern China, possibly coastal
Fujian or
Guangdong. ;Austroasiatic :
Austroasiatic is widely held to be the oldest family in mainland Southeast Asia, with its current discontinuous distribution resulting from the later arrival of other families. The various branches share a great deal of vocabulary concerning rice cultivation, but few related to metals. Identification of the homeland of the family has been hampered by the lack of progress on its branching. The main proposals are
Northern India (favoured by those who assume an early branching of
Munda),
Southeast Asia (the area of maximal diversity; most likely) and southern China (based on claimed loanwords in Chinese). ;Austronesian :The homeland of the
Austronesian languages is widely accepted by linguists to be
Taiwan, since nine of its ten branches are found there, with all Austronesian languages found outside Taiwan belonging to the remaining
Malayo-Polynesian branch.
North America ;Eskimo–Aleut :The
Eskimo–Aleut languages originated in the region of the
Bering Strait or
Southwest Alaska. ;Na-Dené and Yeniseian :The
Dené–Yeniseian hypothesis proposes that the
Na-Dené languages of North America and the
Yeniseian languages of Central Siberia share a common ancestor. Suggested homelands for this family include
Central or
West Asia,
Siberia, or
Beringia, but there is currently not enough evidence to resolve the question. ;Algic :The
Algic languages are distributed from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of North America. It is suggested that
Proto-Algic was spoken on the
Columbia Plateau. From there, pre-
Wiyot and pre-
Yurok speakers moved southwest to the
North Coast of California, while the pre-
Proto-Algonquian speakers moved to the
Great Plains, which was the center of dispersal of the
Algonquian languages. ;Uto-Aztecan :Some authorities on the history of the
Uto-Aztecan language family place the
Proto-Uto-Aztecan homeland in the border region between the USA and Mexico, namely the upland regions of Arizona and New Mexico and the adjacent areas of the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua, roughly corresponding to the
Sonoran Desert. The proto-language would have been spoken by foragers, about 5,000 years ago.
Hill (2001) proposes instead a homeland further south, making the assumed speakers of Proto-Uto-Aztecan maize cultivators in
Mesoamerica, who were gradually pushed north, bringing maize cultivation with them, during the period of roughly 4,500 to 3,000 years ago, the geographic diffusion of speakers corresponding to the breakup of linguistic unity.
South America ;Tupian :
Proto-Tupian, the reconstructed common ancestor of the
Tupian languages of South America, was probably spoken in the region between the
Guaporé and
Aripuanã rivers, around 5,000 years ago.
Africa and Middle East ;Afroasiatic :As
Semitic is the only branch of Afroasiatic found outside Africa, northeast Africa is considered the most likely location of the
Afroasiatic homeland. An alternative theory, based on lexical comparisons with Indo-European, proposes a Neolithic expansion from the Middle East. Proto-Afroasiatic is estimated to have begun to break up in the 8th millennium BCE. ;Niger–Congo :Although the membership and subgrouping of the
Niger–Congo remains unsettled, the widely-accepted core of the group includes over 1000 languages spoken from West Africa through most of Southern Africa. The homeland is thought to have been somewhere in the
savanna belt of West Africa, with the
Bantu expansion through the equatorial rainforests of Central Africa beginning around 3000 BCE. ;Mande :
Valentin Vydrin concluded that "the
Mande homeland at the second half of the 4th millennium BC was located in Southern
Sahara, somewhere to the North of 16° or even 18° of Northern latitude and between 3° and 12° of Western longitude." That is now
Mauritania and/or southern
Western Sahara. ;Nilo-Saharan :The validity of the
Nilo-Saharan family remains controversial. Proponents of the family view the border area between
Chad,
Sudan, and the
Central African Republic as a likely candidate for its homeland from around the start of the Holocene. ;Central Sudanic :The original homeland of
Central Sudanic speakers is likely somewhere in the
Bahr el Ghazal region. ;Khoe–Kwadi :The homeland of
Khoe–Kwadi was likely the middle
Zambezi Valley over 2,000 years ago.
Australia ;Pama–Nyungan :The
Gulf Plains, located in the
Northern Territory and
Queensland, are the likely origin of the
Pama–Nyungan languages. == See also ==