Re[2]: [tied] Recent Male-Mediated Gene Flow over a Linguistic Barr

From: Brian M. Scott
Message: 49626
Date: 2007-08-25

At 11:36:45 AM on Thursday, August 23, 2007, george knysh
wrote:

> --- Carl Hult <Carl.Hult@...> wrote:

>> http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v65n5/990331/990331.html?erFrom=-7454629884260091146Guest

>> It seems that Renfrew is proven more and more right, no
>> matter what some old-school linguists say or think.

> ****GK: I was unable to access this. Lack of proper
> "cookies". But it seems to me that "gene flow" and
> "language" are disparate categories. One is almost tempted
> to reply "It seems that Renfrew is proven more and more
> wrong, no matter what some new-school linguists say or
> think". (:=)))******

Here's the summary:

We have examined the worldwide distribution of a
Y-chromosomal base-substitution polymorphism, the T/C
transition at SRY-2627, where the T allele defines
haplogroup 22; sequencing of primate homologues shows that
the ancestral state cannot be determined unambiguously but
is probably the C allele. Of 1,191 human Y chromosomes
analyzed, 33 belong to haplogroup 22. Twenty-nine come
from Iberia, and the highest frequencies are in Basques
(11%; n = 117) and Catalans (22%; n = 32). Microsatellite
and minisatellite (MSY1) diversity analysis shows that
non-Iberian haplogroup-22 chromosomes are not
significantly different from Iberian ones. The simplest
interpretation of these data is that haplogroup 22 arose
in Iberia and that non-Iberian cases reflect Iberian
emigrants. Several different methods were used to date the
origin of the polymorphism: microsatellite data gave ages
of 1,650, 2,700, 3,100, or 3,450 years, and MSY1 gave ages
of 1,000, 2,300, or 2,650 years, although 95% confidence
intervals on all of these figures are wide. The age of the
split between Basque and Catalan haplogroup-22 chromosomes
was calculated as only 20% of the age of the lineage as a
whole. This study thus provides evidence for direct or
indirect gene flow over the substantial linguistic barrier
between the Indo-European and non–Indo-European–speaking
populations of the Catalans and the Basques, during the
past few thousand years.

The introduction notes that '[m]ost regions of sharp genetic
change within Europe correspond to linguistic boundaries'
and that genetic analysis 'lends some support to the view of
the Basques as an isolate'; the point of interest is that
despite the evidence that the Basques were to some extent
genetically isolated, this study finds evidence of Basque-IE
gene flow.

Carl's comment appears to be a non sequitur.

Brian