Genetics Can Track How Languages Mixed in the Past
September 18, 2025
3 Min read
Genetics can follow how languages mixed in the past
New research shows that wherever human populations are mixed, their languages are also mixed
Photohamster / Getty images
When speakers of different languages meet, their words, their sounds and even grammatical structures mingle in a surprising way. Ketchup, for example, can be an essential American today, but its name has entered English via the Chinese Hokkian language towards the end of the 17th century. Or consider the expression “Attorney General”: we place the adjective after the name because it was a standard word order in French when the Normans invaded England in 1066. This type of exchange, called linguistic “loan”, is a large part of the way in which languages evolve throughout the world.
Due to the gaps in the historical file of human encounters, it can be difficult to measure exactly how contact between different populations has shaped a given language over the years. But a vestige of all these past interactions persists in human DNA: each time the genes of a person indicate that their ancestors come from two distinct populations, it goes without saying that said ancestors interacted quite closely for their languages to merge too. Thus, a team of researchers has analyzed genetic data of nearly 5,000 people living in recent decades, covering each continent inhabited and has identified 126 cases where the ancestry of these individuals indicated a cross between two separate populations at a given time in the past. Although the genetic heritage of a person does not necessarily reflect the language he speaks, the researchers expected to find similarities between the languages spoken by these convergent groups.
Team results, published on August 29 Scientific advances,, supported their hypothesis: When the populations who speak unrelated languages have children together, their languages become 4 to 9% more likely to share linguistic characteristics. The effect, although subtle, “is completely coherent”, explains the co-ennior author of the study, Chiara Barbieri, geneticist at the University of Cagliari in Italy. “When we have this genetic mixture, we have more [linguistic] borrow overall. This consistency is remarkable, she says, because human populations – with different cultural stories – are together in so many different circumstances.
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To test the similarity between the language pairs they have identified through genetic tests, the researchers compared the pairs using two databases that followed more than 600 linguistic characteristics on thousands of languages. They found it, although transport Rising Borrowing remained stable, the details of these loans varied enormously from one case to another. Indeed, these details sometimes contradicted what linguists predicted on the basis of previous research. Previous studies had underlined a “hierarchy of borrowability”, in which certain elements of a language are more likely to spread to other languages. “There are many ideas established on the types of linguistic features are borrowed more than the others,” explains Simon Greenhill, who studies the evolution of language at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. “But these results do not seem to correspond to this.”
For example, grammar is generally considered difficult to borrow, because adults – the main engines of linguistic evolution – are looking to learn it when they meet a new language. Nevertheless, the new study found unexpected borrowing levels for certain aspects of grammar, like the past (which all languages do not have). But the authors noted that the speakers were perhaps not only borrowed concept From the past – rather than specific grammatical forms, such as “-ed” at the end of “worked” in English. They could then reuse part of their own language, which can be easier than memorizing exotic grammatical forms.
Other characteristics follow completely opposite trends, depending on the context. Take prosody, which is the rhythm, stress and intonation of a language. Because listeners are particularly sensitive to how A person speaks, Prosody is a powerful marker of identity and status, which makes him very sensitive to social pressure. People living under colonial domination, for example, are likely to adopt more prestigious upper word models. But the researchers found that, in situations without imbalances of such striking power, speakers of the two languages often maintain – and even exaggerate – their native prosody to distinguish themselves from neighbors.
Additional research will be necessary to test whether the traditional hierarchy of borrowing is still able. But knowing that genes serve as a reliable proxy for cultural exchange, researchers may be able to probe new linguistic links where evidence has so far failed. “We can use this type of idea to reveal links between the languages and cultures of which we did not know existing,” explains Greenhill. These ideas would refine our understanding of the about 7,000 languages of the world, clarifying which parts of a language are local and which are the product of an external influence.
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