Tone and genes: New cross-linguistic data and methods support the weak negative effect of the "derived" allele of ASPM on tone, but not of Microcephalin.

ABSTRACT: While it is generally accepted that language and speech have genetic foundations, and that the widespread inter-individual variation observed in many of their aspects is partly driven by variation in genes, it is much less clear if differences between languages may also be partly rooted in our genes. One such proposal is that the population frequencies of the so-called "derived" alleles of two genes involved in brain growth and development, ASPM and Microcephalin, are related to the probability of speaking a tone language or not. The original study introducing this proposal used a cross-linguistic statistical approach, showing that these associations are "special" when compared with many other possible relationships between genetic variants and linguistic features. Recent experimental evid

SUBMITTER: Dediu D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8244921 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature