Study says Japanese, Korean and Turkish languages all emerged from common ancestor in northeast China
- International study concludes that the Transeurasian, or Altaic, language family emerged from farmers in the West Liao valley and spread across Asia
- The link between the five groups in the family has been hotly contested, but researchers say there is archaeological and genetic evidence to support the theory
Modern languages ranging from Japanese and Korean to Turkish and Mongolian may share a common ancestor from ancient China around 9,000 years ago, according to a new study.
An international team of researchers said languages from the Transeurasian family, also known as Altaic, could be traced back to early millet farmers in the Liao valley in what is now northeast China and its spread was driven by agriculture.
The origins and degree to which the five groups that make up the Transeurasian family are related has long been an area of contention among scholars, but the team said that recent studies “have shown a reliable core of evidence” supporting the theory that they emerged from a common ancestor.
Based on genetic and archaeological evidence as well as linguistic analysis, the researchers said the languages spread north and west into Siberia and the steppes, and east into Korea and Japan as the farmers moved across northeast Asia – a conclusion that challenges the traditional “pastoralist hypothesis” which proposed the dispersal was led by nomads as they migrated away from the eastern steppe.
Sinitic languages – which include modern forms of Chinese such as Mandarin and Cantonese – have a different origin.
“Accepting that the roots of one’s language – and to an extent one’s culture – lie beyond present national boundaries can require a kind of reorientation of identity, and this is not always an easy step for people to take,” lead author and comparative linguist Martine Robbeets said.