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Keywords = genetic and linguistic distances

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28 pages, 11495 KiB  
Article
Water and Sheep: The Pronunciation and Geographical Distribution of Two Germanic Vowels in the Dialects Around the Former Zuiderzee Area
by Floris Nijhuis, John L. A. Huisman and Roeland van Hout
Languages 2025, 10(3), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10030049 - 13 Mar 2025
Viewed by 1248
Abstract
The Zuiderzee area in the Netherlands is a former inlet sea at the heart of the crossroads of three major regional languages. While these regional languages are largely distinct, previous work by the dialectologist Kloeke indicated similarities due to contact over water, notably [...] Read more.
The Zuiderzee area in the Netherlands is a former inlet sea at the heart of the crossroads of three major regional languages. While these regional languages are largely distinct, previous work by the dialectologist Kloeke indicated similarities due to contact over water, notably the realisation of the Proto-West Germanic vowels *ā and *a. Using various dialectometric methods, we analysed the distribution of these vowels for 121 localities in this region. Specifically, we tried to determine the dialectal landscape more thoroughly, find instances that illustrate cultural diffusion and migration, and evaluate the overall relationship between distance over water and vowel variations. Using a Bayesian population genetic method, admixture, we distinguished nine linguistically explainable clusters, demonstrating its potential. Moreover, we found evidence of cultural diffusion conforming to the overall presence of three different regional languages. Additionally, we employed the so-called matrix method in linear-mixed effects regression to demonstrate that the geographic distance helped to explain the geographic patterns of vowel variation. The distance over water was as effective a measure as the distance over land. We expect this to be common in areas with a history of intensive and sustained shipping traffic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dialectal Dynamics)
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18 pages, 61897 KiB  
Article
Origins of East Caucasus Gene Pool: Contributions of Autochthonous Bronze Age Populations and Migrations from West Asia Estimated from Y-Chromosome Data
by Anastasia Agdzhoyan, Nasib Iskandarov, Georgy Ponomarev, Vladimir Pylev, Sergey Koshel, Vugar Salaev, Elvira Pocheshkhova, Zhaneta Kagazezheva and Elena Balanovska
Genes 2023, 14(9), 1780; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14091780 - 9 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 15148
Abstract
The gene pool of the East Caucasus, encompassing modern-day Azerbaijan and Dagestan populations, was studied alongside adjacent populations using 83 Y-chromosome SNP markers. The analysis of genetic distances among 18 populations (N = 2216) representing Nakh-Dagestani, Altaic, and Indo-European language families revealed [...] Read more.
The gene pool of the East Caucasus, encompassing modern-day Azerbaijan and Dagestan populations, was studied alongside adjacent populations using 83 Y-chromosome SNP markers. The analysis of genetic distances among 18 populations (N = 2216) representing Nakh-Dagestani, Altaic, and Indo-European language families revealed the presence of three components (Steppe, Iranian, and Dagestani) that emerged in different historical periods. The Steppe component occurs only in Karanogais, indicating a recent medieval migration of Turkic-speaking nomads from the Eurasian steppe. The Iranian component is observed in Azerbaijanis, Dagestani Tabasarans, and all Iranian-speaking peoples of the Caucasus. The Dagestani component predominates in Dagestani-speaking populations, except for Tabasarans, and in Turkic-speaking Kumyks. Each component is associated with distinct Y-chromosome haplogroup complexes: the Steppe includes C-M217, N-LLY22g, R1b-M73, and R1a-M198; the Iranian includes J2-M172(×M67, M12) and R1b-M269; the Dagestani includes J1-Y3495 lineages. We propose J1-Y3495 haplogroup’s most common lineage originated in an autochthonous ancestral population in central Dagestan and splits up ~6 kya into J1-ZS3114 (Dargins, Laks, Lezgi-speaking populations) and J1-CTS1460 (Avar-Andi-Tsez linguistic group). Based on the archeological finds and DNA data, the analysis of J1-Y3495 phylogeography suggests the growth of the population in the territory of modern-day Dagestan that started in the Bronze Age, its further dispersal, and the microevolution of the diverged population. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Population and Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics)
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20 pages, 3260 KiB  
Article
More Rule than Exception: Parallel Evidence of Ancient Migrations in Grammars and Genomes of Finno-Ugric Speakers
by Patrícia Santos, Gloria Gonzàlez-Fortes, Emiliano Trucchi, Andrea Ceolin, Guido Cordoni, Cristina Guardiano, Giuseppe Longobardi and Guido Barbujani
Genes 2020, 11(12), 1491; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11121491 - 11 Dec 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 6758
Abstract
To reconstruct aspects of human demographic history, linguistics and genetics complement each other, reciprocally suggesting testable hypotheses on population relationships and interactions. Relying on a linguistic comparative method based on syntactic data, here we focus on the non-straightforward relation of genes and languages [...] Read more.
To reconstruct aspects of human demographic history, linguistics and genetics complement each other, reciprocally suggesting testable hypotheses on population relationships and interactions. Relying on a linguistic comparative method based on syntactic data, here we focus on the non-straightforward relation of genes and languages among Finno-Ugric (FU) speakers, in comparison to their Indo-European (IE) and Altaic (AL) neighbors. Syntactic analysis, in agreement with the indications of more traditional linguistic levels, supports at least three distinct clusters, corresponding to these three Eurasian families; yet, the outliers of the FU group show linguistic convergence with their geographical neighbors. By analyzing genome-wide data in both ancient and contemporary populations, we uncovered remarkably matching patterns, with north-western FU speakers linguistically and genetically closer in parallel degrees to their IE-speaking neighbors, and eastern FU speakers to AL speakers. Therefore, our analysis indicates that plausible cross-family linguistic interference effects were accompanied, and possibly caused, by recognizable demographic processes. In particular, based on the comparison of modern and ancient genomes, our study identified the Pontic-Caspian steppes as the possible origin of the demographic processes that led to the expansion of FU languages into Europe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Genomic Impact of Human Migrations)
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