Why must scholars be cautious when using shared words to locate the Proto-Uralic homeland?

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distribution of the Uralic languages — Uralic languages Distribution of the Uralic languages.

Scholars must exercise great caution when using shared cognates to identify the Proto-Uralic homeland because the association between specific words and objects can result from linguistic borrowing rather than a shared ancestral origin.1

This is particularly true for culturally mobile items, such as terms for metals or animals like the reindeer, which may have been adopted by different groups long after the period of Proto-Uralic unity. Because these words can spread through contact between populations over time, they cannot be traced with certainty to a single Proto-Uralic community, making them unreliable indicators for pinpointing the original geographic location of the language family.1