Ancient DNA reveals where English, German and Scandinavian languages came from
Researchers from the University of Copenhagen trace the origins of Germanic languages back 4,000 years and reshape our understanding of Viking ancestry.
image:
Rock art in the King’s Grave at Kivik (Kiviksgraven) in southern Sweden, an exceptionally large Bronze Age burial monument dating to c. 1500 BCE, coinciding with the expansion of East Scandinavian Bronze Age ancestry. From left: Hugh McColl, lead author; Eske Willerslev, senior author.
view moreCredit: Nicolas Delgado Clausen
English, German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages are all members of the Germanic language group, spoken by hundreds of millions of people today. But where did these languages come from?
According to two new studies published in Nature, part of the answer may lie in the DNA of thousands of ancient Europeans.
An international team led by the University of Copenhagen and Leiden University analysed DNA from more than 4,500 ancient individuals, including 712 genomes sequenced for the first time. By combining genetics, archaeology and linguistics, the researchers reconstructed major migrations that helped shape the languages spoken across Europe today.
“DNA sequences do not tell us directly which language people spoke. But by combining ancient DNA with linguistic and archaeological evidence, we can begin to trace how languages spread and changed over thousands of years,” says Eske Willerslev, senior author of the studies and Professor at Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen.
A previously unknown migration
The researchers identified a previously unknown major migration into Scandinavia around 4,000 years ago.
The newcomers likely arrived from areas around the Baltic Sea and spread rapidly across Scandinavia. Their arrival had a lasting impact on Northern European populations, leading researchers to suggest that they may have carried the earliest ancestor of today's Germanic languages.
This challenges the long-held assumption that the roots of Germanic languages arrived with earlier migrations about 5,000 years ago. Instead, the findings suggest that the linguistic foundations of English, German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages may have spread a thousand years later than previously thought.
“For over a century, scholars have debated when and from where the Germanic languages arrived in Northern Europe. What is exciting is that we can now test some of these ideas directly. We discovered a previously unknown migration that occurred at exactly the time and place where we would expect the earliest form of Germanic to be spreading,” says Hugh McColl, Assistant Professor at Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen and lead author of the study.
New clues to Viking origins
The studies also uncovered an unexpected chapter of Scandinavian history. Around 1,500 years ago, several centuries before the Viking Age, people from what is now northern Germany migrated into Denmark and southern Sweden. In some regions, particularly Zealand, they became a major part of the local population.
The migration coincides with the emergence of Old Norse, the language spoken by the Vikings. The findings suggest that many Danish and Swedish Vikings traced much of their ancestry to these newcomers, who were closely related to groups that also contributed to the Anglo-Saxons in Britain.
The discovery may help explain longstanding similarities between Viking and Anglo-Saxon cultures, including shared artistic traditions and closely related languages.
“This migration came as a real surprise. Archaeologists and linguists had not predicted it, but it helps explain several cultural and linguistic connections between Scandinavia and Britain that have puzzled researchers for a long time,” says Hugh McColl.
Revisiting the origins of Celtic languages
A companion study used the same approach to tackle another longstanding debate: the origins of the Celtic languages.
Today, Celtic languages survive mainly in places such as Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Brittany. But 2,500 years ago, Celtic languages were spoken across much of Europe. Scholars have debated for more than a century whether they originated along Europe's Atlantic coast or farther east in central Europe.
The ancient DNA points to a movement of people from central Europe around 3,000 years ago, that spread westwards into France, Britain, Ireland and the Iberian Peninsula. According to the researchers, this provides the simplest explanation for the spread of Celtic languages. It also challenges one of the most influential theories, which proposes that Celtic languages originated along the Atlantic coast.
“The question of where Celtic languages came from has been debated for more than 100 years. Ancient DNA gives us an entirely new way to evaluate competing theories and brings important new evidence into the discussion,” says Guus Kroonen, Associate Professor of comparative linguistics at Leiden University and the University of Copenhagen.
Bringing genetics, language and history together
The researchers emphasize that DNA alone cannot reveal which language ancient people spoke. Instead, the studies combine genetic evidence with decades of linguistic and archaeological research.
By tracing when and where people moved, the team was able to test long-standing hypotheses about how languages spread across Europe and provide a more detailed picture of the continent's past than ever before.
“These studies show what becomes possible when genetics, archaeology and linguistics are brought together. Questions that have remained unresolved for generations can now be addressed with a level of evidence that was previously impossible,” says Kristian Kristiansen, Professor of Archaeology at University of Gothenburg.
Ales stenar (Ale’s Stones) in southern Sweden, a monumental Iron Age stone ship-setting overlooking the Baltic Sea, dating to c. 600–1000 CE and broadly coinciding with the period of back-migration into the region. From left: Eske Willerslev, senior author; Hugh McColl, lead author.
Credit
Nicolas Delgado Clausen
Nordic Bronze Age ship and axe rock art at Järrestad in southern Sweden. Carving at the site began around c. 1500 BCE, coinciding with the expansion of East Scandinavian Bronze Age ancestry. From left: Hugh McColl, lead author; Eske Willerslev, senior author.
Credit
Nicolas Delgado Clausen
Journal
Nature
Article Title
Tracing the spread of Germanic languages using ancient genomics
Article Publication Date
4-Nov-2026
Ultrasound reveals hidden tongue movements behind centuries-old language change
Scientists at Lancaster University have observed the hidden tongue movements accompanying a centuries-old change in English speech - offering a rare glimpse of language transforming in real time.
Linguists have used ultrasound imaging to observe one of these changes as it unfolds inside the mouths of speakers from Blackburn, Lancashire - one of the few places in England where many older speakers still pronounce the historical strong-R sound after vowels in words like star and heart.
By imaging the tongue during speech, the researchers uncovered differences between older and younger generations, providing direct evidence of how an ongoing sound change is reflected in the physical movements of speech.
Lead author Dr Danielle Turton, from Lancaster’s School of Social Sciences, said: “English has changed beyond recognition over the past 1,000 years. We can see the evidence of this in Shakespeare, Chaucer and particularly older texts such as Beowulf.
“However, language isn't just something that changed in the past. It is changing all around us, all the time, in such small increments that we rarely notice it happening.
"We can never observe language directly inside the brain, but we can get physically one step closer by observing the movements that create speech. Ultrasound allows us to see tongue movements that would otherwise be completely hidden."
Using the same ultrasound technology commonly used to scan babies in the womb, researchers at Lancaster University have been able to watch how the tongue moves during speech.
The study examined speakers from Blackburn, Lancashire - a community that has retained one of England's last traditionally rhotic accents. The research found that, while older speakers on average produced strong tongue gestures associated with the distinct R sound, younger speakers showed systematically weaker articulations, providing new evidence that this historic pronunciation continues to decline.
Dr Turton added: "We often think about language change through old books or historical recordings. But language is changing all the time, at an incremental pace often too tiny to observe. What's exciting here is that we can actually monitor the physical movements involved in a sound change that's happening today."
The findings also demonstrate the value of ultrasound for understanding language variation and change. Traditional analyses rely largely on what speech sounds like. By observing how sounds are physically produced, researchers can uncover patterns that would otherwise remain invisible.
The work forms part of a growing body of research using articulatory imaging to understand how accents change over time and how speech is produced across different communities.
The study, "Rhoticity in Decline? An Ultrasound Study of Lancashire /r/” was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and is published in Language and Speech. DOI: 10.1177/00238309261478619.
The research was led by Dr Danielle Turton and co-authored by Dr Robert Lennon, both at Lancaster University.
Journal
Language and Speech
Method of Research
Imaging analysis
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
The study, "Rhoticity in Decline? An Ultrasound Study of Lancashire /r/
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