The question of the time of formation of language families is very important for the problems of ethnogenesis. Some Soviet researchers – archaeologists and ethnographers – admit that the formation of these families could have begun already at the end of the Late Paleolithic or in the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), 13-7 thousand years before our days. In this era, in the process of human settlement, groups of related languages, and perhaps the languages of some of the largest ethnic communities, could spread over very vast territories.

The Danish linguist X. Pedersen once hypothesized the genetic connection of the languages of several major families, which were considered unrelated. He called these languages "nostratic" (from Latin. noster is ours). The research of the Soviet linguist V. M. Illich-Svitych has shown the scientific validity of combining Indo-European, Semitic-Hamitic, Uralic, Altaic and some languages into a large nostratic macrofamily of languages. This macrofamily was formed in the Upper Paleolithic in the territory of South-West Asia and adjacent regions. During the retreat of the last Wurm glaciation and climatic warming in the Mesolithic, Nostratic tribes settled over a vast territory of Asia and Europe; they pushed back, and partially assimilated the tribes that lived there earlier. In this historical process, nostratic tribes formed a number of isolated areas, where the formation of special language families began. The largest of them, the Indo–European linguistic community, began to form on the territory of the Southern Urals, and then in the "Big Steppe" – from Altai to the Black Sea region.

As archaeological cultures that could be correlated with the area of the pan-Indo-European cultural complex, scientists name the Khalaf, Ubeid, Chatal-Huyuk cultures in Southwestern Asia and the Kuro-Araksin culture in Transcaucasia. According to these scientists, the secondary intermediate ancestral homeland of the Indo-Europeans was the Northern Black Sea region, where their settlement dates back to the III millennium BC. To the south of the area of the Indo-European family, the core of the Semitic-Hamitic (Afrasian) language family may have formed. To the north of the Indo—Europeans lived the speakers of the Kartvelian proto-language, to the east – the Dravidian proto-language. The ancestral home of the Uralic (Finno-Ugric and Samoyed) Turkic, Mongolian and Tungusic-Manchu languages was located on the northeastern periphery of modern Russia. This nostratic macrofamily of languages includes the Indo-European, Semitic-Hamitic, or Afrasian, Kartvelian, Uralic, Dravidian, Turkic, Mongolian, Tunguso-Manchurian, Chukchi-Kamchatka and, possibly, the Eskimo-Aleut language families. The languages of this huge macro-family are now spoken by over 2/3 of the world's population.

The spread of Nostratic languages was probably both through the settlement of ancient people of the modern type, and through contacts between their various tribal groups. There is reason to assume that in southeast Asia, at about the same time, another ancient linguistic macrofamily (or trunk) was formed – the Pacific Ocean, the differentiation of which led to the development of Sino—Tibetan, Austroasiatic and Austronesian languages. Other scientists (including many Soviet linguists) believed that the most likely time for the formation of language families were the later periods of history corresponding to the Neolithic (New Stone Age) and the Bronze Age of archaeological periodization (8-2 thousand BC). The formation of the oldest language families at this time was associated with the allocation of mobile, mainly pastoral tribes and their intensive migrations, which intensified the processes of linguistic differentiation and assimilation. It should be noted, however, that the real differences between both points of view are not so great, since the formation of different language families did not occur at the same time and was a very long process.

Earlier than others, there were probably ethnic communities speaking languages that are currently preserved among small peoples living on the periphery of the primitive ecumene – the land area inhabited by people (Greek. "eikeo" – to inhabit). These languages are distinguished by a wide variety of phonetic composition and grammar, often forming imperceptible transitions between themselves, perhaps dating back to the era of primitive linguistic continuity. Such languages, which are very difficult to classify geneologically, include the languages of American Indians, "Paleoasiates of Siberia", Australians, Papuans of New Guinea, Bushmen and Hottentots, and some peoples of West Africa.

Primitive humanity, settling from the west (Africa) to the east (the Arabian Peninsula) and developing new lands in the depths of Asia, split into two groups of populations in the Ancient Stone Age: black and white. This was due to a decrease in the amount of melanin, brown and black pigments. For groups of hunters and gatherers who constantly change their habitats in search of food, primitive forms of buildings in the form of wind barriers, tree dwellings or temporary huts made of branches, bark and leaves are still typical, which strongly reminds of Russian folklore, where Baba Yaga lives in a hut on "chicken legs" (fumigated with smoke so as not to rot) and "flies" on a broomstick. Yaga, like a lamb, is a victim in Sanskrit, and in ancient Russian (chaga) is a prisoner. Yaga – in German and Swedish – "to hunt, drive, hunt game." The male version of "huntsman" (from German – hunter). All these words have the same origin – from the Indo-European base. There is a version of the origin of the name Yaga from the ancient Slavic beregini (originally pre-Christian good spirits –patrons of the Slavs) – Yasha (Yagi), its name means that it comes from a Lizard, that is, the ancestor – the most ancient ancestor in the family, Yaga guarded the Fiery River, that is, the sacred border separating the earthly and otherworldly worlds. The guardian of this border should be harsh, therefore, negative traits were attributed to Yaga, after the adoption of Christianity, the image of the good Yaga became insidious and evil, she became an ugly witch who controls forest lands and feeds on human flesh.

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