English is descended from a language that emerged in Turkey 8000 to 9500 years ago, new research suggests.

Scientists traced the origin of all Indo-European languages to Anatolia, an ancient region of western Asia that covers most of modern Turkey.

Indo-European languages span a wide linguistic spectrum including English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Persian, Hindi and ancient Greek.

All evolved from a common ancestor, scientists believe.

Experts think Indo-European languages spread out from the Middle East along with agriculture.

Scientists traced the origins of Indo-European languages using a method borrowed from evolutionary biologists that looked at "cognates" – words with a common origin.