Urheimat

Urheimat (: ur-, ; Heimat , ) is a term denoting the original homeland of the speakers of a. Since many peoples tend to wander and spread, there is no absolute Urheimat, e.g. there is an Urheimat different from the  or  Urheimat. If the proto-language was spoken in historical times, the location of the Urheimat is typically undisputed, such as the in the case of the Romance languages. If the proto-language is unattested, however, its existence, and by consequence the existence and exact location of its Urheimat, may always be of a hypothetical nature.

Indo-European homeland
After this manner, scholars have tried to identify the homeland of the, to which the term Urheimat is most frequently applied. Possibly relevant geographical indicators are common words for 'beech' and 'salmon' (while there is no common word for 'lion', for example—the fact so many European words for "lion" are similar-looking s is due to more recent ). Many hypotheses for an Urheimat have been proposed, and said: “One does not ask ‘where is the Indo-European homeland?’ but rather ‘where do they put it now?’ ”

states that current discussion of the Indo-European homeland problem is largely confined to four basic models, with variations; these are, in chronological order:




 * Early, c. 7000–6000 BC


 * Early c. 5000 BC


 * c. 4500–3500 BC

Other, less widely accepted models include the, the , and the.

Afro-Asiatic homeland
The more limited area part of the Sprachraum has limited the potential areas where the that family's Urheimat could be. Generally speaking, two proposals have been developed: that Afro-Asiatic arose in the Urheimat (the Middle East/Southwest Asia), or in northeast Africa (generally, either between  and  or in  and the other countries of the ). The African hypothesis is considered to be rather more likely at the present time.