Genetics, Linguistics, and the History of Human Populations

Whether diachronic linguistics can benefit from research in human genetics by utilizing its findings for the reconstruction of the history of some 5,000 natural languages is addressed. Genetic research on the diversification of human populations is surveyed, noting the correlation between genetic &a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Langages (Paris) 2002-06, Vol.146 (June), p.80-90
Main Authors: Dupanloup, Isabelle, Poloni, Estella S, Schneider, Stefan, Excoffier, Laurent, Langaney, Andre
Format: Article
Language:fre
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Whether diachronic linguistics can benefit from research in human genetics by utilizing its findings for the reconstruction of the history of some 5,000 natural languages is addressed. Genetic research on the diversification of human populations is surveyed, noting the correlation between genetic & linguistic distance. Linguistic-geographic frontiers between major linguistic families & genetic evidence supporting the existence of some super families (eg, the Nostratic family) while disproving others (eg, the Austric macrofamily comprising several different families of Southeast Asia & Oceania) are discussed. It is demonstrated how the spatial differentiation of Rhesus & GM haplotype frequencies correspond with the distribution & kinship patterns of world languages. It is concluded that although genetic evidence may not be able to directly validate Merrit Ruhlen's (1994) hypothesis of a common protolanguage, a mother language for all current languages of the world, it nevertheless is incompatible with the alternative proposal advanced in paleolinguistic literature arguing that the diversity of today's world languages developed from several unrelated linguistic families. 4 Figures, 24 References. Adapted from the source document
ISSN:0458-726X