An international team of researchers based on data analysis of the peoples of northeast Asia has established that the grammar of language is related to the genetic history of a population. Article researchers published in the journal Science Advances.
Expand the history of human migration in ancient times it is difficult. Scientists have been trying to do this by combining the data of archeology, genetics, cultural studies and linguistics. A team of specialists, led by researchers from the Tokyo and Zurich University analyzed data on 14 nations, 11 language families in Siberia and East Asia – Tungus, Chukchi-Kamchatka, Eskimo-Aleut, Yukaghir, Ainu, Korean, and Japanese. Furthermore, there were obtained previously inaccessible scientists genetic data Nivkhs – indigenous Sakhalin
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The researchers compared the genomes of these populations with data on their language (grammar, phonology, lexicon) and folk music (the structure of the songs, their style) and tried to find a correlation. It was found that the grammar of the best from all the information about the culture reflects the genetic history of the peoples: for grammatical language similarity can predict the genetic closeness of the people, speaking to them. The reverse situation is also true.
scientists conducted the analysis shows that such a relation between grammar and genetics reflects contacts between populations before the emergence of language families, in prehistoric times.