Differences in our genes influence the type of language we speak, linguists report.
“Tonal” languages such as Chinese use pitch changes to convey the meaning of words, while non-tonal languages such as English don’t.
Dan Dediu and Robert Ladd of the University of Edinburgh found that groups of people who carry recently evolved versions of two genes tend to speak non-tonal languages. The genes, believed to affect brain development, are called ASPM and Microcephalin.
The newer version of ASPM appeared an estimated 5,800 years ago; Microcephalin most recently changed about 37,000 years ago. The two are among a variety of genes that have changed recently in human evolution—part of what one recent study has called a trend of quickly accelarating evolution in humans.
Dediu and Ladd calculated statistical links between 983 locations in the genome and 26 different linguistic features in 49 distinct populations from around the Old World. They found that there is generally no link between genes and language features. But when biases for geography and history were removed, a pattern emerged between in which tonal language speakers lacked the more recently evolved forms of ASPM and Microcephalin.
The gene-language relationship in this case “cannot be explained by historical and geographical factors, thus strengthening the claim of a causal relationship between them,” the researchers wrote in this week’s early online issue of the research journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study introduces a new methodology “for studying the relationship between genetic and linguistic diversities,” they wrote. They added that they hope future experiments will reveal how these genes influence individual brains and, ultimately, the language preferences of whole populations.
“Tonal” languages such as Chinese use pitch changes to convey the meaning of words, while non-tonal languages such as English don’t.
Dan Dediu and Robert Ladd of the University of Edinburgh found that groups of people who carry recently evolved versions of two genes tend to speak non-tonal languages. The genes, believed to affect brain development, are called ASPM and Microcephalin.
The newer version of ASPM appeared an estimated 5,800 years ago; Microcephalin most recently changed about 37,000 years ago. The two are among a variety of genes that have changed recently in human evolution—part of what one recent study has called a trend of quickly accelarating evolution in humans.
Dediu and Ladd calculated statistical links between 983 locations in the genome and 26 different linguistic features in 49 distinct populations from around the Old World. They found that there is generally no link between genes and language features. But when biases for geography and history were removed, a pattern emerged between in which tonal language speakers lacked the more recently evolved forms of ASPM and Microcephalin.
The gene-language relationship in this case “cannot be explained by historical and geographical factors, thus strengthening the claim of a causal relationship between them,” the researchers wrote in this week’s early online issue of the research journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study introduces a new methodology “for studying the relationship between genetic and linguistic diversities,” they wrote. They added that they hope future experiments will reveal how these genes influence individual brains and, ultimately, the language preferences of whole populations.