31-03-2022, 08:26 PM
An international study concludes that the Transeurasian, or Altaic, language family emerged from farmers in the West Liao valley and spread across Asia
Modern languages ranging from Japanese and Korean to Turkish and Mongolian may share a common ancestor from ancient China around 9,000 years ago, according to a new study.
An international team of researchers said languages from the Transeurasian family, also known as Altaic, could be traced back to early millet farmers in the Liao valley in what is now northeast China and its spread was driven by agriculture.
The origins and degree to which the five groups that make up the Transeurasian family are related has long been an area of contention among scholars, but the team said that recent studies “have shown a reliable core of evidence” supporting the theory that they emerged from a common ancestor.
The researchers from Britain, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, the Netherlands and the United States published their findings in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
Further analysis found a relationship between Bronze Age sites in the West Liao area and Mumun sites in Korea and Yayoi sites in Japan, showing that rice and wheat farming had been introduced to the Liaodong-Shandong area before spreading to the Korean peninsula in the early Bronze Age and from there to Japan around 3,000 years ago.
Meanwhile, their genetic analysis identified a common genetic component called “Amur-like ancestry” among all speakers of Transeurasian languages, and reported a collection of ancient genomes from Korea, the Ryukyu Islands and early cereal farmers in Japan
“By advancing new evidence from ancient DNA, our research thus confirms recent findings that Japanese and Korean populations have West Liao River ancestry, whereas it contradicts previous claims that there is no genetic correlate of the Transeurasian language family,” the researchers said.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/...ll-emerged
Modern languages ranging from Japanese and Korean to Turkish and Mongolian may share a common ancestor from ancient China around 9,000 years ago, according to a new study.
An international team of researchers said languages from the Transeurasian family, also known as Altaic, could be traced back to early millet farmers in the Liao valley in what is now northeast China and its spread was driven by agriculture.
The origins and degree to which the five groups that make up the Transeurasian family are related has long been an area of contention among scholars, but the team said that recent studies “have shown a reliable core of evidence” supporting the theory that they emerged from a common ancestor.
The researchers from Britain, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, the Netherlands and the United States published their findings in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
Further analysis found a relationship between Bronze Age sites in the West Liao area and Mumun sites in Korea and Yayoi sites in Japan, showing that rice and wheat farming had been introduced to the Liaodong-Shandong area before spreading to the Korean peninsula in the early Bronze Age and from there to Japan around 3,000 years ago.
Meanwhile, their genetic analysis identified a common genetic component called “Amur-like ancestry” among all speakers of Transeurasian languages, and reported a collection of ancient genomes from Korea, the Ryukyu Islands and early cereal farmers in Japan
“By advancing new evidence from ancient DNA, our research thus confirms recent findings that Japanese and Korean populations have West Liao River ancestry, whereas it contradicts previous claims that there is no genetic correlate of the Transeurasian language family,” the researchers said.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/...ll-emerged
![[Image: Screenshot-from-2022-04-01-07-49-46.png]](https://i.ibb.co/6JYdjzr/Screenshot-from-2022-04-01-07-49-46.png)
![[Image: Screenshot-from-2022-04-01-07-48-39.png]](https://i.ibb.co/VYcrH04/Screenshot-from-2022-04-01-07-48-39.png)