Researchers have solved a long-standing mystery about the origins of Uralic languages. They were known to go back thousands of years, but who spoke them originally? 

To find out, researchers combined genetic and archeological data to trace the ancestral origins of the people who now speak Uralic languages.

Their study, published in Nature, describes how they found a 'genetic tracer dye' for the spread of Uralic-speaking populations across Eurasia between 11,000 and 4,000 years ago.

This shows how Uralic people migrated from Siberia as far as the Baltic sea and East Asia, bringing with them technological advancements and the Uralic language.

It also shows how the ~25 million Uralic language speakers living today can trace this ancestry in their DNA.

"This study is incredibly exciting for me as Estonian. We Uralic speakers have this little contribution of Siberian DNA — about 5% [of our total DNA]. Now it seems these genes connect all Uralic people with our ancestral cultures and languages," said Kristiina Tambets, an expert in archaeogenetics at University of Tartu in Estonia, who was not involved in the study.

What is the ancestral homeland of Uralic people?

Scientists have previously traced the roots of Indo-European languages. This linguistic root via people migrating from central Asia to Europe and India started 5,000 years ago. Eventually, the language branched out into modern groups like Germanic, Slavic, and Romance.

But Uralic languages are completely different — experts don't fully understand the origins of the language, or who spoke it. That's because Uralic languages, such as those spoken in Estonia, Hungary and Finland, all come from a completely different linguistic origin, compared to Indo-European. 

Linguists believe Uralic languages may have originated from somewhere near the Ural Mountains, in modern-day Russia and Kazakhstan. But it's debated where exactly this was, and how Uralic languages spread through Eurasia.

The study authors aimed to solve this mystery by studying the genes of ancient Uralic people. By analyzing patterns and variations in DNA from ancient individuals, they could reconstruct how these populations migrated over many generations.

They tested the genomes of 180 ancient Uralic people, who lived 11,000-4,000 years ago across a huge area of Eurasia — mapping closely with the whole range of modern-day Russia and its neighbors. They compared this ancient genomic data to the DNA from another 1,312 ancient people already studied by scientists. 

Their data showed a complex picture of how Uralic people migrated over thousands of years from multiple original areas throughout Siberia.

"Our study shows that present-day Uralic speakers derive a portion of their ancestry from far away to the East, from the Yakutia region of Siberia," said the study's first author Tian Chen Zeng at Harvard University, Cambridge, US.

Tracing the genetics of these migrating peoples, the researchers found that early Proto-Uralic people branched off into several different groups over thousands of years. 

One major group went west to the Baltic — areas like Finland, Estonia, and northwest Russia, where Uralic language speakers live today.

Another proto-Uralic group called the Yeniseians branched off around 5,400 years ago to live in central Siberia. There, the only surviving Yeniseian language is Ket.

And another branch migrated to East Asia around 4,500 years ago, which the authors say is why many Uralic-speaking people today have some East Asian ancestry. Some of these people then migrated to the Americas and gave rise to Native Americans.

Other Uralic groups in the central Eurasian steppe lands migrated westwards into Hungary around 3,000 years ago.

This study also supports the idea that the eastern Ural Mountains are the homeland for Uralic languages. 

"That said, it's not possible to say what languages people spoke based on their genes," said Tambets. 

Ancient Uralic people influenced modern culture 

Tambets, who is head of the Centre of Excellence of Estonian Roots, said the study is "the way" to solve questions about ancestry. 

"It pulls together all these different strands about genetics, language, and archeology. It shows how Uralic-speaking people today can trace how their ancestors followed this [migration] route and spread with super cool technological advancements 4,000 years ago."

By "super cool advancements," Tambets refers to metallurgy, particularly with copper and bronze, and the trade networks that early Uralic people developed.

Migrating Uralic people "interacted extensively with diverse peoples on their way to Europe," including other fisher-foragers and pastoralist populations, Zeng told DW in an email.

These Uralic people settled in various regions around Eurasia. In the Baltic, "early [Indo-European] settlers at the Baltic came together with later Uralic-speaking people after this massive migration. I'm a mosaic of this integration," said Tambets.

As well as preserving their own languages, Uralic people also influenced the Indo-European languages that most Europeans speak today. For example, linguists believe words like "water", "pot", and "fish" may have originally stemmed from Proto-Uralic.

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany

Primary source:

Ancient DNA reveals the prehistory of the Uralic and Yeniseian peoples