What If Our History Was Written In Our Grammar?

Culture is an important factor for tracing the population history. Utae Ehara playing the mukkuri. Utae Ehara) Humans have been always on the move, creating a complex history of languages and cultural traditions dispersed over the globe. An international team under UZH's lead has now traced families of related languages over more than 10,000 years by combining data from genetics, linguistics and musicology using novel digital methods. Their findings: grammar reflects best the common prehistory of a population and therefore mirrors genetics more than any other cultural feature. Since the beginning of their existence, some populations have split up while others have come together, leaving a deep mark on local languages and cultural traditions. Reconstructing this complex history remains a gigantic challenge.