We generated genome-wide data from 69 Europeans who lived between 8,000–3,000 years ago by enriching ancient DNA libraries for a target set of almost 400,000 polymorphisms. Enrichment of these positions decreases the sequencing required for genome-wide ancient DNA analysis by a median of around 250-fold, allowing us to study an order of magnitude more individuals than previous studies and to obtain new insights about the past. We show that the populations of Western and Far Eastern Europe followed opposite trajectories between 8,000–5,000 years ago. More...

A team of international researchers has shed new light on the origins of some of the most widely spoken languages in the world. The results raise questions about existing views of their relationships.
Three billion people today speak a language that is part of the Indo-European family of languages, spanning Europe as well as central, western and south Asia. But the reason why these languages – such as English, Spanish, Russian and Hindi – are related has been a source of some argument for more than 200 years.
New research published in Nature and led by researchers at the Harvard Medical School and a University of Adelaide ancient-DNA team of experts, shows that at least some of the Indo-European languages spoken in Europe were likely the result of a massive migration from eastern Russia.
“This new study is the biggest of its kind so far and has helped to improve our understanding of the linguistic impact of Stone Age migration," says co-author Dr Wolfgang Haak, from Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA. More...

Everywhere, every day, everybody uses language. There is no human society, no matter how small or how isolated, which does not employ a language that is rich and diverse. This course introduces you to linguistics, featuring interviews with well-known linguists and with speakers of many different languages. Join us to explore the miracles of human language.
View the MOOC. More...

Language literacy is an essential life skill for the 21st century. It is a fact that learning a foreign language is a good way to improve brain function and acquire social skills.
Moreover it is an effective way to explore other languages and cultures in order to obtain a professional advantage in labour market. These are some of the reasons why multilingualism was and continues to be one of the cornerstones of EU projects. According to the European Union, ”one of the specific objectives pursued by the Erasmus+ Programme in the field of education and training is to improve the teaching and learning of languages and to promote the EU’s broad linguistic diversity and intercultural awareness”. More...

The LangOER network is organizing a series of five webinars on Open Educational Resources (OER) for teachers.
Webinar on OERs for teachers. More...