researchers looked at DNA of Europeans who lived 2 and 3,000 years ago . DNA associated with indigenous people appeared in northern Germany . Yamnaya were displaced from the steppe north of the Black and Aral Seas . This caused a large influx that would have changed speech and language . Previously , researchers estimate that Indo - European language spread some 8,500 years ago , by the first farmers from the Near plains , now Turkey .
Study looked at DNA of Europeans who lived 8,000 and 3,000 years ago . DNA associated with Yamnaya people appeared in northern Germany . Yamnaya were herders from the steppe north of the Black and Aral Seas . This suggests a large influx that would have changed speech and DNA . Previously , researchers believed that Indo-European language spread some 8,500 years ago , by the first farmers from the Near East , now Turkey .