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Mark Stoneking - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Concomitant replacement of language and mtDNA in South Caspian populations of Iran.
    Current biology : CB, 2006
    Co-Authors: Ivan Nasidze, Dominique Quinque, Manijeh Rahmani, Seyed Ali Alemohamad, Mark Stoneking
    Abstract:

    Summary The Gilaki and Mazandarani occupy the South Caspian region of Iran and speak Languages belonging to the North-Western branch of Iranian Languages [1]. It has been suggested that their ancestors came from the Caucasus region, perhaps displacing an earlier group in the South Caspian [2]. Linguistic evidence supports this scenario, in that the Gilaki and Mazandarani Languages (but not other Iranian Languages) share certain typological features with Caucasian Languages [3, 4]. We analyzed patterns of mtDNA and Y chromosome variation in the Gilaki and Mazandarani. Based on mtDNA HV1 sequences, the Gilaki and Mazandarani most closely resemble their geographic and linguistic neighbors, namely other Iranian groups. However, their Y chromosome types most closely resemble those found in groups from the South Caucasus. A scenario that explains these differences is a south Caucasian origin for the ancestors of the Gilaki and Mazandarani, followed by introgression of women (but not men) from local Iranian groups, possibly because of patrilocality. Given that both mtDNA and language are maternally transmitted, the incorporation of local Iranian women would have resulted in the concomitant replacement of the ancestral Caucasian language and mtDNA types of the Gilaki and Mazandarani with their current Iranian language and mtDNA types. Concomitant replacement of language and mtDNA may be a more general phenomenon than previously recognized.

  • Testing hypotheses of language replacement in the Caucasus: evidence from the Y-chromosome
    Human Genetics, 2003
    Co-Authors: Ivan Nasidze, Tamara Sarkisian, Azer Kerimov, Mark Stoneking
    Abstract:

    A previous analysis of mtDNA variation in the Caucasus found that Indo-European-speaking Armenians and Turkic-speaking Azerbaijanians were more closely related genetically to other Caucasus populations (who speak Caucasian Languages) than to other Indo-European or Turkic groups, respectively. Armenian and Azerbaijanian therefore represent language replacements, possibly via elite dominance involving primarily male migrants, in which case genetic relationships of Armenians and Azerbaijanians based on the Y-chromosome should more closely reflect their linguistic relationships. We therefore analyzed 11 bi-allelic Y-chromosome markers in 389 males from eight populations, representing all major linguistic groups in the Caucasus. As with the mtDNA study, based on the Y-chromosome Armenians and Azerbaijanians are more closely-related genetically to their geographic neighbors in the Caucasus than to their linguistic neighbors elsewhere. However, whereas the mtDNA results show that Caucasian groups are more closely related genetically to European than to Near Eastern groups, by contrast the Y-chromosome shows a closer genetic relationship with the Near East than with Europe.

Ivan Nasidze - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Concomitant replacement of language and mtDNA in South Caspian populations of Iran.
    Current biology : CB, 2006
    Co-Authors: Ivan Nasidze, Dominique Quinque, Manijeh Rahmani, Seyed Ali Alemohamad, Mark Stoneking
    Abstract:

    Summary The Gilaki and Mazandarani occupy the South Caspian region of Iran and speak Languages belonging to the North-Western branch of Iranian Languages [1]. It has been suggested that their ancestors came from the Caucasus region, perhaps displacing an earlier group in the South Caspian [2]. Linguistic evidence supports this scenario, in that the Gilaki and Mazandarani Languages (but not other Iranian Languages) share certain typological features with Caucasian Languages [3, 4]. We analyzed patterns of mtDNA and Y chromosome variation in the Gilaki and Mazandarani. Based on mtDNA HV1 sequences, the Gilaki and Mazandarani most closely resemble their geographic and linguistic neighbors, namely other Iranian groups. However, their Y chromosome types most closely resemble those found in groups from the South Caucasus. A scenario that explains these differences is a south Caucasian origin for the ancestors of the Gilaki and Mazandarani, followed by introgression of women (but not men) from local Iranian groups, possibly because of patrilocality. Given that both mtDNA and language are maternally transmitted, the incorporation of local Iranian women would have resulted in the concomitant replacement of the ancestral Caucasian language and mtDNA types of the Gilaki and Mazandarani with their current Iranian language and mtDNA types. Concomitant replacement of language and mtDNA may be a more general phenomenon than previously recognized.

  • Testing hypotheses of language replacement in the Caucasus: evidence from the Y-chromosome
    Human Genetics, 2003
    Co-Authors: Ivan Nasidze, Tamara Sarkisian, Azer Kerimov, Mark Stoneking
    Abstract:

    A previous analysis of mtDNA variation in the Caucasus found that Indo-European-speaking Armenians and Turkic-speaking Azerbaijanians were more closely related genetically to other Caucasus populations (who speak Caucasian Languages) than to other Indo-European or Turkic groups, respectively. Armenian and Azerbaijanian therefore represent language replacements, possibly via elite dominance involving primarily male migrants, in which case genetic relationships of Armenians and Azerbaijanians based on the Y-chromosome should more closely reflect their linguistic relationships. We therefore analyzed 11 bi-allelic Y-chromosome markers in 389 males from eight populations, representing all major linguistic groups in the Caucasus. As with the mtDNA study, based on the Y-chromosome Armenians and Azerbaijanians are more closely-related genetically to their geographic neighbors in the Caucasus than to their linguistic neighbors elsewhere. However, whereas the mtDNA results show that Caucasian groups are more closely related genetically to European than to Near Eastern groups, by contrast the Y-chromosome shows a closer genetic relationship with the Near East than with Europe.

Karina Vamling - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Complementation in the Northwest Caucasian Languages
    2018
    Co-Authors: Mukhadin Kumakhov, Karina Vamling
    Abstract:

    The article addresses the topic of complementation in the Northwest Caucasian (Abkhaz-Adyghe) Languages in the North Caucasus. This study of complementation focuses on various relations between mai ...

  • O zarubežnoj dejatel'nosti professora M.A. Kumaxova
    2018
    Co-Authors: Karina Vamling
    Abstract:

    On professor M.A. Kumakhov's work and research abroad (in Russian) Professor Mukhadin A. Kumakhov and the author collaborated in the area of Northwest Caucasian Languages under a period from 1991 ...

  • What else Do you Need to Know about the Referents
    2009
    Co-Authors: Karina Vamling
    Abstract:

    In a discourse fragment, the referents are referred to by various noun phrases, pronouns and personal markers in the verbform. It is interesting to consider the substitutional character of the personal pronouns. What information do they express about the referents, i. e. what does one need to know about a referent in order to pick the right pronoun? In a case like / know Johan. He works at our department, the pronoun he is chosen for the second reference to the person called Johan, as it corresponds to one male person, who is neither the speaker nor the hearer. The features involved are thus, person, number and semantic gender. The selection of pronouns is somewhat different in, for instance, the Caucasian Languages, where additional features of the discourse situation become relevant, such as the distance and relative location of the referents above or below the speaker/hearer. The implications such systems may have for a formal, cross-linguistic model are briefly discussed in the paper.

  • Ergative case in the Circassian Languages
    1996
    Co-Authors: Mukhadin Kumakhov, Karina Vamling, Zara Kumakhova
    Abstract:

    The Circassian Languages (Northwest Caucasian) exhibit ergative patterns both in case marking and in the alignment of agreement markers in the verb. Ergative/absolutive case marking is restricted to certain types of nominals, which thus results in split-ergativity. The paper examines the marking of ergative/absolutive case in various types of nominals and relates the distribution to the Nominal Hierarchy. The Circassian Languages Adyghe (West Circassian) and Kabardian (East Circassian) belong to the West Caucasian Languages. They are spoken by 568.000 in the Caucasus and also by great numbers in Turkey and other neighbouring countries. The problem of ergativity in the Circassian Languages is treated in works such as Jakovlev & Ashkhamaf 1941, Rogava & Kerasheva 1966, Taov 1967, Zekokh 1967, Kumakhov 1971, 1989, Gishev 1985, Kumakhov & Vamling to appear. (Less)

Guido Barbujani - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Do Basque- and Caucasian-Speaking Populations Share Non-Indo-European Ancestors?
    European Journal of Human Genetics, 1995
    Co-Authors: Giorgio Bertorelle, Jaume Bertranpetit, Francesc Calafell, Ivane S. Nasidze, Guido Barbujani
    Abstract:

    Genetic evidence is consistent with the view that the Indo-European Languages were propagated in Europe by the diffusion of early farmers. The existence of phylogenetic relationships between European populations speaking other Languages has been proposed on linguistic and archaeological grounds, and is here tested by analyzing allele frequencies at ten polymorphic protein and blood group loci. Genetic distances between speakers of Basque and Caucasian Languages are compared with those between controls, i.e. contiguous populations speaking Indo-European and Altaic. Although some statistical tests show an excess of genetic similarity between Basque and South Caucasian speakers, most results do not support their common origin. If the Basques and the Caucasian-speaking populations share common ancestors, recent evolutionary phenomena must have caused divergence between them, so that their gene frequencies do not appear more similar now than those of random pairs of populations separated by the same geographic distance.

  • Testing hypotheses on processes of genetic and linguistic change in the Caucasus.
    Human biology, 1994
    Co-Authors: Guido Barbujani, G. Bertorelle, Ivane Nasidze
    Abstract:

    Extensive genetic diversity exists in the populations of the Caucasus. Various hypotheses on its origin and evolution were tested by comparing genetic, geographic, and linguistic distances. Seventeen polymorphic loci and 107 localities were considered, and Mantel tests of matrix association were carried out. Genetic differences correlate more with linguistic than with geographic distances; but when populations are grouped by the language spoken, this correlation loses significance, whereas genetic and geographic distances between groups appear significantly associated. Hypotheses that classify North and South Caucasian Languages into distinct families or that treat all North Caucasian Languages as independent linguistic entities fail to account for genetic variation better than simpler models. We interpret these results as evidence for an evolutionary process in which linguistic and genetic divergence has resulted from population subdivision and from processes of elite dominance, that is, language replacement not associated with major migratory movements.

Forker Diana - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • A grammar of Sanzhi Dargwa
    Language Science Press, 2019
    Co-Authors: Forker Diana
    Abstract:

    Sanzhi Dargwa belongs to the Dargwa (Dargi) Languages (ISO dar; Glottocode sanz1248) which form a subgroup of the East Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestanian) language family. Sanzhi Dargwa is spoken by approximately 250 speakers and is severely endangered. This book is the first comprehensive descriptive grammar of Sanzhi, written from a typological perspective. It treats all major levels of grammar (phonology, morphology, syntax) and also information structure. Sanzhi Dargwa is structurally similar to other East Caucasian Languages, in particular Dargwa Languages. It has a relatively large consonant inventory including pharyngeal and ejective consonants. Sanzhi morphology is concatenative and mainly suffixing. The language exhibits a mixture of dependent-marking in the form of a rich case inventory and head-marking in the form of verbal agreement. Nouns are divided into three genders. Verbal inflection conflates tense/aspect/mood/evidentiality in a rich array of synthetic and analytic verb forms as well as participles, converbs, a masdar (verbal noun), and infinitive and some other forms used in analytic tenses and subordinate clauses. Salient traits of the grammar are two independently operating agreement systems: gender/number agreement and person agreement. Within the nominal domain, modifiers agree with the head nominal in gender/number. Agreement within the clausal domain is mainly controlled by the argument in the absolutive case. Person agreement operates only at the clausal level and according to the person hierarchy 1, 2 > 3. Sanzhi has ergative alignment in the form of gender/number agreement and ergative case marking. The most frequent word order at the clause level is SOV, though all other logically possible word orders are also attested. In subordinate clauses, word order is almost exclusively head-final

  • Elevation as a category of grammar: Sanzhi Dargwa and beyond
    'Walter de Gruyter GmbH', 2019
    Co-Authors: Forker Diana
    Abstract:

    Nakh-Daghestanian Languages have encountered growing interest from typologists and linguists from other subdiscplines, and more and more Languages from the Nakh-Daghestanian language family are being studied. This paper provides a grammatical overview of the hitherto undescribed Sanzhi Dargwa language, followed by a detailed analysis of the grammaticalized expression of spatial elevation in Sanzhi. Spatial elevation, a topic that has not received substantial attention in Caucasian linguistics, manifests itself across different parts of speech in Sanzhi Dargwa and related Languages. In Sanzhi, elevation is a deictic category in partial opposition with participant-oriented deixis/horizontally-oriented directional deixis. This paper treats the spatial uses of demonstratives, spatial preverbs and spatial cases that express elevation as well as the semantic extension of this spatial category into other, non-spatial domains. It further compares the Sanzhi data to other Caucasian and non-Caucasian Languages and makes suggestions for investigating elevation as a subcategory within a broader category of topographical deixis