Nº 313 文化与科学：古代DNA如何检验日耳曼语与凯尔特语扩散——莱顿大学与哥本哈根大学牵头两项 Nature（2026-11-04）；逾4700古代基因组；日耳曼二次迁入与回迁；凯尔特中欧起源与大西洋竞争假说；基因不能单独证明语言
Why Ancient DNA May Trace Germanic and Celtic Language Spread
2026.11.05 · 16:10 UTC+8
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中文导读 许多语言从哪里来、如何取代另一种语言，长期靠语言学与考古推断。莱顿大学与哥本哈根大学牵头的两项《自然》研究（2026-11-04）分析逾4700个古代基因组，把祖先成分变化与日耳曼语、凯尔特语的扩散时间线对照。阅读时可留意 ancient、ancestry、migration、inscription 等概念，以及 DNA alone cannot show 所保留的证据边界。
正文 English , German and Dutch belong to a large language family that more than one billion people speak . Celtic languages such as Welsh , Irish and Gaelic survive among only a few million speakers . On 4 November 2026, Nature published two studies that use ancient human DNA to test how early forms of these languages may have spread across Europe An international team led by researchers at Leiden University and the University of Copenhagen analysed more than 4,700 ancient genomes , including over 700 newly sequenced people . DNA alone cannot show which language a person spoke . The authors therefore compared ancestry shifts with linguistic and archaeological evidence . Guus Kroonen , a historical linguist at Leiden and a co - author of both papers , notes that people can adopt a new language without changing their genes . For Germanic languages , the team found an unexpected result . Scholars had long linked the earliest Germanic speech in Scandinavia to steppe migrants who arrived about 4,800 years ago . The new data instead highlight a second group that reached Sweden around 4,000 years ago , likely from Baltic regions . That ancestry later spread through northern Europe in patterns that match linguistic timelines , including early runic inscriptions and Anglo-Saxon communities in Britain . The researchers suggest these newcomers may have carried a precursor of Germanic some 800 years later than older models assumed The Germanic study also found a back-migration : people from northern Germany moved into Denmark and southern Sweden about 1,500 years ago . The shift coincided with the rise of Old Norse , the language of the Vikings , and with new political centres in the region . Norway changed far less genetically , yet still took part in the linguistic turn . That pattern shows that contact as well as migration can reshape speech Celtic origins have long been debated . Some models place them on the Atlantic coast ; others point to Central Europe . Genetic patterns between about 3,200 and 2,800 years ago best support a westward expansion from Central Europe linked to Urnfield - related ancestry into France Britain and beyond . An earlier Atlantic movement into Britain around 3,800 years ago still leaves room for a more complex story . Population geneticist Hugh McColl says the team wanted to see how language ranges swapped through time . Together , the papers argue that language history can be tested with DNA , but only when genes , words and archaeology are read side by side .
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