Genetic changes across language boundaries in Europe

Abstract

By means of three different methods we investigated whether 59 allele frequencies and ten cranial variables show increased change at 29 language-family boundaries in Europe. The quadrat-variance method compares variances of map quadrats crossed by language-family boundaries to variances of quadrats that are not crossed. The rate-of-change method examines the directional derivative of surfaces of the variables perpendicular to a language-family boundary and compares these derivatives to the same quantities obtained by randomly placing the language boundaries on the map of Europe. The difference method tests whether these variables differ more across language-family boundaries than across randomly placed boundaries. These special data-analytic techniques had to be developed to avoid the problem of spatial autocorrelation of both language and biological data. All three methods indicate increased genetic change at language-family boundaries. Clearer and more pronounced results are obtained by the first two methods than by the difference method. Thirteen language-family boundaries show significant gene frequency change by at least one of the methods. Changes are more marked in gene frequencies than in cranial variables. Different allele frequencies mark the increased change at different language boundaries. A model, based on the known history of each language-family boundary, was constructed to predict whether given boundaries should exhibit increased genetic change. The model is in good agreement with the observed results.