Languages Traced, Like Viruses, Back to Their Origins

Technique tracks English back to its birthplace in Anatolia

Linguiboffins have traced the origins of Indo-European languages to Turkey using the same methods developed to track bird flu, HIV and other viruses.

"If you know how viruses are related to one another you can trace back through their ancestry and find out where they originated," said lead researcher Dr Quentin Atkinson of the University of Auckland. "We've used those methods and applied them to languages."