How the world’s largest language family spread — and why others go extinct
undefined 29, 2025
Three new books explore the origins and fate of the world’s languages, revealing both the widespread dominance of Indo-European and the quiet disappearance of rarer tongues. *Proto* by Laura Spinney and *The Indo-Europeans Rediscovered* by J.P. Mallory delve into how genetic and archaeological evidence has reshaped our understanding of the Proto-Indo-European language family, now believed to have spread from the Pontic–Caspian Steppe about 5,000 years ago. Meanwhile, *Rare Tongues* by Lorna Gibb shifts the focus to endangered and extinct languages, examining why some vanish while others flourish. Together, they offer a fresh perspective on how language shapes, and is shaped by, human history.
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