Genetics and linguistics
Linguistics is the study of human languages, their structure, and their history. From a first impression, one would say that linguistics is not linked to the field of biology, and for a long time, it has been true, until the introduction of genetics in language sciences. This story is focusing on the role that genetics, as a scientific field, is playing in linguistic studies, and so the use of genetic will refer to the domain of science and not genetic relation, which refers to similarities between closely related languages.
Since sir William Jones’s discovery of the Indo-European theory, linguists started grouping various languages into language families due to their similarities. That was the birth of comparative linguistics. Following this, linguistics started tracing the genealogy of language families. And so when linguistics became more and more related to human history it came to the mind of many scientists the idea of correlating population genetics to linguistic discoveries. To understand the link between these two aspects of anthropology, the essay will focus on two examples of genetic evidence of linguistic theories.
Genetics and the Indo-European theory:
The Indo-European theory states that most languages of Europe, Persia, and north India belong to one same language family. This theory is agreed upon by most linguists due to a large amount of supporting linguistic pieces of evidence. However, the question of the propagation of Indo-European languages, and their original repartition was still a subject of debate. However with the recent genetic discoveries especially the ones led by Igor Rozhanskii and Anatole Klyosove*, and Tatiana Zerjal* one the spread of the Y-chromosome Haplogroup R1a, New supportive pieces of evidence for the Indo-European homeland came. Genetic studies show that R1a’s homeland “Central Asia/ Pontic steppe” coincides with the Yamna culture area, which has been proven to be a highly possible original homeland for Indo-European languages and people according to the Kourgane theory.
Genetics and the Afro-Asiatic theory:
The Afro-Asiatic theory is a new theory that classified many languages around MENA in one language family. Previously referred to as the Hamito-Semitic language family and now known as the Afro-Asiatic language family. The case of Afro-Asiatic is special in the way that its proto-language is possibly one of the oldest ever classified, around 10000 BC. The study of the repartition of the afro-Asiatic languages was extremely marked by genetic discoveries, especially ones on the ancient Afro-Asiatic speaking population, such as the Natufians. Research on the Natufian genome linked the afro-Asiatic language family to the spread of the E1B1B Y-chromosome haplogroup. This theory of the levant Urheimat is supported by Militarev. However other researchers such as Christopher Ehret, see the horn of Africa as a more likely homeland for the Afro-Asiatic languages which also coincides with the fact that the area represents a possible origin for E1B1B lineages.
In conclusion, we can notice the importance that genetics are playing an important role as solid support for linguistic discoveries, which shows the interconnectivity of these two fields of anthropology.
References:
-Separating the post-Glacial coancestry of European and Asian Y chromosomes within haplogroup R1a — T-Zerjal
-Haplogroup R1a, Its Subclades and Branches in Europe During the Last 9,000 Years — A-Klyosove, I-Rozhanskii.
-Eupedia.com
-The Origins of Afroasiatic — C-Ehret
