VOA慢速英语--最新研究发现泛欧亚语系或起源于中国

A recent study has followed the origins, or beginnings, of the family of languages that include modern Japanese, Korean, Turkish and Mongolian.

The findings show a shared genetic¹ ancestry² for the hundreds of millions of people who speak what the researchers call Transeurasian languages. Such languages had their origin with millet³ farmers who lived in an area in northeastern China about 9,000 years ago.

Millet is a small, round whole grain. It was an important early crop as hunter-gatherers became farmers.

The study's findings show how the use of agriculture following the Ice Age powered the movements of some of the world's major language families.

History

There are 98 Transeurasian languages. Among these are Korean and Japanese as well as several Turkic languages, Mongolic languages, and Tungusic languages in Manchuria and Siberia.

The language family's beginnings were followed to ancient millet farmers in the Liao River valley. The area includes parts of the Chinese provinces of Liaoning and Jilin, as well as Inner Mongolia. As the ancient farmers moved across northeastern Asia, related languages spread into Siberia, Korea and Japan over thousands of years.

The research highlighted the complex beginnings of modern populations and cultures.

Martine Robbeets is head of the Archaeolinguistic Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany. She is also the lead writer of the study that appeared in the publication Nature.

Robbeets said people often think of Japan, Korea and China as powerful nations representing one language, one culture and one people. "But a truth that makes people with nationalist agendas⁵ uncomfortable is that all languages, cultures and humans, including those in Asia, are mixed," Robbeets said.

She added, "Accepting that the roots of one's language, culture or people lie beyond the present national boundaries is a kind of surrender of identity, which some people are not yet prepared to make."

Methods

The researchers studied data of vocabulary from the 98 languages. They identified a group of words related to agriculture and created a language family tree.

Mark Hudson, a co-lead writer of the study, said the researchers examined data from 255 archaeological sites in China, Japan, Korea and eastern Russia. They studied ancient objects including pottery⁶, stone tools and plant and animal remains⁷. They also included the dating of 269 ancient crop remains from different areas.

The researchers found that farmers in northeastern China eventually grew rice and wheat along with millet. The crops spread along with farming populations to Korea by about 1300 BC and from there to Japan after about 1000 BC.

The researchers performed genetic studies on ancient remains of 23 people and examined data on others who lived in North and East Asia as long as 9,500 years ago.

For example, a woman's remains found in Yokchido in South Korea had 95 percent ancestry from Japan's ancient Jomon people. This suggests her recent ancestors had come from over the sea.

"It is surprising to see that ancient Koreans reflect Jomon ancestry, which so far had only been detected in Japan," Robbeets said.

The origins of modern Chinese languages came about independently, although millet was also involved.

While the early speakers of the Transeurasian languages grew broomcorn millet in the Liao River valley, the early speakers of the Sino-Tibetan language family farmed foxtail millet at around the same time in China's Yellow River area. This led to different language movements over time, Robbeets suggested.

Words in This Story

province -- n. any one of the large parts that some countries are divided into

agenda⁴ -- n. a plan or goal that guides someone's behavior

uncomfortable -- adj. causing a feeling of being embarrassed or uneasy⁸

boundary – n. something (such as a river, a fence, or an imaginary line) that shows where an area ends and another area begins

prepared – adj. willing to do something

site -- n. the place where something (such as a building) is, was, or will be located

reflect – v. to show (something) : to make (something) known

detect -- v. to discover or notice the presence of (something that is hidden or hard to see, hear, taste, etc.)

1 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

2 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

3 millet   

n.小米，谷子

参考例句：

• Millet is cultivated in the middle or lower reaches of the Yellow River.在黄河中下游地区，人们种植谷子。
• The high quality millet flour was obtained through wet milling.采用湿磨法获得了高品质的小米粉。

4 agenda   

n.议事日程，记事册

参考例句：

• We now proceed to the next item on the agenda.我们现在着手讨论下一项议题。
• If there is no objection,the agenda is adopted.如果没有意见，议程就通过了。

5 agendas   

议事日程( agenda的名词复数 )； 待议诸事项（一览表）； 目的； 日常工作事项

参考例句：

• The agendas for the next two meetings have yet to be worked out. 下两次会议的议程尚需制定。
• These will be the major agendas of the summit talks. 这些会是峰会的主要议题。

6 pottery   

n.陶器，陶器场

参考例句：

• My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
• The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 uneasy   

adj.心神不安的，担心的，令人不安的

参考例句：

• He feels uneasy today.他今天心里感到不安。
• She had an uneasy feeling that they were still following her.她有一种他们仍在跟踪她的不安感觉。