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Barbieri C, Blasi DE, Arango-Isaza E, Sotiropoulos AG, Hammarström H, Wichmann S, Greenhill SJ, Gray RD, Forkel R, Bickel B, Shimizu KK. A global analysis of matches and mismatches between human genetic and linguistic histories. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2122084119. [PMID: 36399547 PMCID: PMC9704691 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2122084119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2021] [Accepted: 10/10/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Human history is written in both our genes and our languages. The extent to which our biological and linguistic histories are congruent has been the subject of considerable debate, with clear examples of both matches and mismatches. To disentangle the patterns of demographic and cultural transmission, we need a global systematic assessment of matches and mismatches. Here, we assemble a genomic database (GeLaTo, or Genes and Languages Together) specifically curated to investigate genetic and linguistic diversity worldwide. We find that most populations in GeLaTo that speak languages of the same language family (i.e., that descend from the same ancestor language) are also genetically highly similar. However, we also identify nearly 20% mismatches in populations genetically close to linguistically unrelated groups. These mismatches, which occur within the time depth of known linguistic relatedness up to about 10,000 y, are scattered around the world, suggesting that they are a regular outcome in human history. Most mismatches result from populations shifting to the language of a neighboring population that is genetically different because of independent demographic histories. In line with the regularity of such shifts, we find that only half of the language families in GeLaTo are genetically more cohesive than expected under spatial autocorrelations. Moreover, the genetic and linguistic divergence times of population pairs match only rarely, with Indo-European standing out as the family with most matches in our sample. Together, our database and findings pave the way for systematically disentangling demographic and cultural history and for quantifying processes of shifts in language and social identities on a global scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chiara Barbieri
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Zurich 8050, Switzerland
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Damián E. Blasi
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02134
- Human Relations Area Files, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511-1225
| | - Epifanía Arango-Isaza
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Zurich 8050, Switzerland
| | | | - Harald Hammarström
- Department of Linguistics and Philology, University of Uppsala, Uppsala 75126, Sweden
| | - Søren Wichmann
- Cluster of Excellence ROOTS, Kiel University, Kiel 24118, Germany
| | - Simon J. Greenhill
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
| | - Russell D. Gray
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Robert Forkel
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Balthasar Bickel
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Zurich 8050, Switzerland
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich 8050, Switzerland
| | - Kentaro K. Shimizu
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Zurich 8050, Switzerland
- Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Yokohama City University, 244-0813, Yokohama, Japan
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Ceolin A, Guardiano C, Longobardi G, Irimia MA, Bortolussi L, Sgarro A. At the boundaries of syntactic prehistory. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200197. [PMID: 33745316 PMCID: PMC8059681 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0197] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Can language relatedness be established without cognate words? This question has remained unresolved since the nineteenth century, leaving language prehistory beyond etymologically established families largely undefined. We address this problem through a theory of universal syntactic characters. We show that not only does syntax allow for comparison across distinct traditional language families, but that the probability of deeper historical relatedness between such families can be statistically tested through a dedicated algorithm which implements the concept of 'possible languages' suggested by a formal syntactic theory. Controversial clusters such as e.g. Altaic and Uralo-Altaic are significantly supported by our test, while other possible macro-groupings, e.g. Indo-Uralic or Basque-(Northeast) Caucasian, prove to be indistinguishable from a randomly generated distribution of language distances. These results suggest that syntactic diversity, modelled through a generative biolinguistic framework, can be used to provide a proof of historical relationship between different families irrespectively of the presence of a common lexicon from which regular sound correspondences can be determined; therefore, we argue that syntax may expand the time limits imposed by the classical comparative method. This article is part of the theme issue 'Reconstructing prehistoric languages'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Ceolin
- Dipartimento di Comunicazione ed Economia, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Viale Allegri 9, 42121 Reggio Emilia, Italy
| | - Cristina Guardiano
- Dipartimento di Comunicazione ed Economia, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Viale Allegri 9, 42121 Reggio Emilia, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Longobardi
- Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, Vanbrugh College, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Monica Alexandrina Irimia
- Dipartimento di Comunicazione ed Economia, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Viale Allegri 9, 42121 Reggio Emilia, Italy
| | - Luca Bortolussi
- Dipartimento di Matematica e Geoscienze, Università di Trieste, Via Weiss 2, 34128 Trieste, Italy
| | - Andrea Sgarro
- Dipartimento di Matematica e Geoscienze, Università di Trieste, Via Weiss 2, 34128 Trieste, Italy
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