Photo: HarperCollins
Thousands of miles apart, people who speak English, Icelandic or Iranic use more or less the same words: star, stjarna, stare.
All three of these languages - and hundreds more - share a single ancient ancestor, spread by ancient peoples far and wide. Today, nearly half of humanity speaks an Indo-European language. But, Proto Indo European is a language that has been dead for thousands of years and was never written down.
British science journalist Laura Spinney's epic tale Proto - How One Ancient Language Went Global retraces its steps.
Spinney has written for the New Scientist, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. She speaks with Susie.
