Scientists trace evolution of Indo-European languages to Hittites
At last the answer in black and white, or beltz and zuri if you happen to be Basque, or noir and blanc, if you are French. You owe the words to Hittite-speaking farmers from Anatolia, who invented agriculture and spread their words as they sowed their seed, 9,500 years ago… Charles Darwin noted in 1871 that language seemed to have evolved in much the same way as animals and plants had. Dr Gray used the evolutionary approach three years ago to track the spread of languages from Asia eastwards across the Pacific.