Capturing language change through the genes: publication in Science Advances
When populations meet, they typically exchange genes. Their languages meet too, and such encounters can change languages. But how much do languages actually change through contact, and do these changes differ depending on the type of contact? To address these questions, an international study led by the University of Zurich links global patterns of genetic exchange with linguistic data. The results, published in the journal Science Advances today, show that contact between human populations increases the resemblance between their languages to similar extents all over the world, though the effect varies across different aspects of language.
Read news article on NCCR homepage
Anna Graff, Damián E. Blasi, Erik J. Ringen, Vladimir Bajić, Daphné Bavelier, Kentaro K. Shimizu, Brigitte Pakendorf, Chiara Barbieri, Balthasar Bickel. 2025. Patterns of genetic admixture reveal similar rates of borrowing across diverse scenarios of language contact. Science Advances.