Eurasiatic

The Eurasiatic hypothesis is a linguistic theory that proposes a common ancestral language from which the Indo-European, Uralic, and Altaic language families descended. Proposed in the early 20th century by linguists such as Nikolai Trubetzkoy and later expanded upon by scholars like Roman Jakobson and Vladimir Toporow, this concept suggests that these language families share a more distant but significant genetic link than previously recognized.

The hypothesis posits that Eurasiatic languages emerged from a proto-language spoken by early human populations that migrated across the Eurasian landmass. This proto-language is believed to have been spoken around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, coinciding with the Neolithic Revolution and the expansion of agricultural societies. The theory attempts to explain the geographical distribution and structural similarities among Indo-European languages (such as English, German, and Hindi), Uralic languages (like Finnish and Hungarian), and Altaic languages (including Turkish, Mongolian, and Korean).

Critics argue that the evidence supporting Eurasiatic remains circumstantial, relying heavily on comparative grammar and lexical analysis rather than direct genetic or archaeological proof. Some linguists contend that the overlap between these families is better explained by independent borrowing or convergence rather than a single ancestral language. Despite these debates, the Eurasiatic hypothesis remains a subject of ongoing research and discussion within linguistics, offering insights into the historical spread of human language and culture across Eurasia.