Study Finds Ancient Humans Spoke Thousands More Languages Than Today

A new study challenges prevailing views about historical linguistic diversity, suggesting that ancient humans communicated using a far greater variety of languages than exist today.

According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, which cited the scientific journal Science, humanity employed tens of thousands of languages between 1000 BCE and 1000 CE to interact with one another.

The findings stem from research conducted by an international team from Spain, the United States, and Germany. Their analysis incorporated ethnographic data, computational models, and estimates of global human population over time. The researchers posited a maximum size for ethnolinguistic groups and linked the number of such groups to the number of languages, as reported by Science.

The study indicated that at the start of the Holocene epoch approximately 12,000 years ago, the number of languages was lower, estimated between 4,500 and 6,200. Linguistic diversity increased alongside population growth.

Researchers identified a "golden age" of linguistic diversity roughly 1,000 to 3,000 years ago, when the number of languages may have been about ten times higher than at the beginning of the Holocene, approaching approximately 50,000 languages.

However, as large states and ancient empires expanded, this diversity began to decline rapidly, Der Spiegel noted.

The research team based their study on ethnographic data from 171 hunter-gatherer societies, estimating the distribution of human groups each with its own language, and correlated these with global population estimates.

Russell Gray of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig stated, "The first surprise was that the world before the spread of agriculture did not exhibit exceptional linguistic diversity; rather, it likely had fewer languages than today."

Gray added that "the languages we see today are survivors of a massive and highly selective historical bottleneck," according to Yale News.

Understanding the factors shaping linguistic diversity is crucial for comprehending human history, culture, and cognition. Subsequent increases in global population enhanced linguistic diversity, which then began to decline for several reasons outlined in Science.

This significant reduction in linguistic diversity is believed to have started not with modern colonial expansion but during the spread of ancient empires, which brought their languages, diseases, and cultures.

Previously isolated groups entered into ongoing contact, and dominant languages expanded at the expense of others. Languages of expanding groups had greater survival prospects, while those of subjugated or assimilated peoples disappeared.

Damian Blasi, the study’s lead researcher, said, "The languages we see today are the ones that survived. Language extinctions likely played a much larger role in shaping linguistic diversity than previously understood."

Four Languages Disappear Annually

The study also examined the current state of languages. Approximately 7,500 languages exist worldwide today, but linguistic diversity is rapidly declining, especially with the dominance of languages such as English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, and Hindi.

The study noted that "around five billion people speak at least one of the ten most widespread languages, while half of the world’s languages face extinction," as stated by Der Spiegel.

It further explained that about four languages disappear each year. Science News highlighted that although nearly 7,500 languages exist now, this number could have been ten times greater a few thousand years ago.

Chiara Barbieri, a researcher at the University of Cagliari in Italy, described the study as "opening new horizons," emphasizing that the loss of an immense number of languages over time is difficult to imagine.

She remarked to Science News, "Are there peoples who developed languages with features that today we can barely even imagine? This is astonishing and leaves the mind puzzled."