The history of people’s movements and interactions shapes both genetic and linguistic variation. Genes and languages are transmitted separately and their distributions reflect different aspects of human history, but some demographic processes can cause them to be similarly distributed. In particular, forms of societal organization, including movements in and out of a community, may have shaped the transmission of both genes and languages. If children were more likely to learn their mother’s language than their father’s when their parents were from populations that spoke different languages or dialects, then language variation might show a closer association with maternally transmitted genetic markers than autosomal ones; this association could be further reinforced if children reside with predominantly maternal kin. We analyze the worldwide relationship between linguistic and genomic variation, leveraging the sex-biased transmission of X chromosomes to assess whether language has tended to be preferentially transmitted along the male or female line. In addition, we measure the effects of postmarital residence with female kin, matrilineal descent, and endogamy on the covariation of mitochondrial DNA and languages, using mtDNA because genomic data were available for very few populations with these ethnographic traits. We find that while there is little evidence for a consistent or widespread sex bias in the transmission of language, such biased transmission may have occurred locally in several parts of the world and might have been influenced by population-level ethnographic characteristics, such as female-based descent or residence patterns. Our results highlight the complex relationships between genes, language, ethnography, and geography.

中文翻译：

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遗传和语言学比较揭示了语言特征的复杂性别偏倚传递


人们的运动和互动历史塑造了遗传和语言变异。基因和语言是分开传播的，它们的分布反映了人类历史的不同方面，但一些人口过程会导致它们的分布相似。特别是，社会组织的形式，包括进出社区的运动，可能塑造了基因和语言的传递。如果当父母来自说不同语言或方言的人群时，孩子比父亲更有可能学习母亲的语言，那么语言变异可能与母系传播的遗传标记比常染色体遗传标记更密切;如果儿童主要与母系亲属同住，则可以进一步加强这种关联。我们分析了语言和基因组变异之间的全球关系，利用 X 染色体的性别偏倚传递来评估语言是否倾向于优先沿着男性或女性路线传递。此外，我们使用 mtDNA 测量了婚后与女性亲属、母系血统和内婚制对线粒体 DNA 和语言协变的影响，因为基因组数据可用于极少数具有这些民族学特征的人群。我们发现，虽然几乎没有证据表明语言传播中存在一致或广泛的性别偏见，但这种偏见传播可能发生在世界多个地方，并且可能受到人口层面的民族学特征的影响，例如基于女性的血统或居住模式。我们的结果突出了基因、语言、人种学和地理之间的复杂关系。