- Question
Where did the speakers of Proto-Indo-European live?
Proto-Indo-European is the ancient ancestor of many of the world's languages, including Russian, Farsi, English, and Greek. However, since it was never written and was spoken around 5000 years ago, scientists are still unsure of who its speakers were and where--and when--they lived.
Proto-Indo-Europeans speakers lived on the Pontic Steppe
This position presents the Steppe (or Kurgan) model of Proto-Indo-European origins. It holds that the speakers of the ancestral language lived on the Pontic Steppe, the grasslands north of the Black Sea, from which their language and culture later spread across Europe and Asia.
Proto-Indo-Europeans speakers lived in Anatolia
This position presents the Anatolian model of Proto-Indo-European origins. It holds that the speakers of the ancestral (pre-Proto-Indo-European) language lived in Anatolia — the region of modern-day Turkey — from which their language spread, an alternative to the Steppe hypothesis.
Proto-Indo-Europeans speakers lived in Anatolia
The Near-Eastern or Armenian Model proposes speakers of Proto-Indo-European lived in northern Mesopotamia, eastern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), and the southern Caucasus.