English’s Ancient Roots May Have Reached Scandinavia 800 Years Later Than Thought

Two studies in Nature have shed new light on the origins of the English language and its Celtic relatives. By examining the DNA of ancient Europeans, researchers have traced the spread of Germanic and Celtic languages across Europe, challenging previous assumptions about when and how these languages took root.

The Germanic language family, which includes English, German, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish, is believed to have originated in Scandinavia much later than previously thought. The DNA evidence suggests that newcomers entered Sweden around 4,000 years ago, likely from the Baltic region, carrying an early form of Germanic language. This is 800 years later than scholars had assumed, and the earlier view of Germanic being tied to an earlier wave of migrants about 4,800 years ago is not proven.

A previously unknown migration, identified at the time and place expected for the earliest spread of Germanic, could explain the linguistic connections between Scandinavia and Britain during the Viking Age. The ancestry of many Danish Vikings likely came from northern Germany or southern Denmark, moving to the Danish islands and southern Sweden around 1,500 years ago, coinciding with the emergence of Old Norse, the language of the Viking Age.

The findings also challenge the traditional understanding of the Goths, a people thought to have originated in Scandinavia. Genetic analysis shows that some Goths, particularly those later found in Ukraine and Spain, had ancestry more similar to local populations, indicating that assimilation and language adoption occurred without the migration of their original ancestors.

Celtic languages, once widespread across Europe including the Balkans, also show a best fit for a westward expansion from eastern central Europe around 3,000 years ago. While Celtic languages now survive only on Europe's western edge, the DNA evidence suggests they may have spread partly through contact rather than solely through migration. This new understanding of language origins, supported by ancient DNA, opens up fresh avenues for exploring how languages evolve and spread over millennia.