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Datu berri batzuk, segur aski ez dira azkenak izango…
Azken albistea: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960982221003493
Genetic origins, singularity, and heterogeneity of Basques
Highlights
Summary
Basques have historically lived along the Western Pyrenees, in the Franco-Cantabrian region, straddling the current Spanish and French territories. Over the last decades, they have been the focus of intense research due to their singular cultural and biological traits that, with high controversy, placed them as a heterogeneous, isolated, and unique population. Their non-Indo-European language, Euskara, is thought to be a major factor shaping the genetic landscape of the Basques. Yet there is still a lively debate about their history and assumed singularity due to the limitations of previous studies. Here, we analyze genome-wide data of Basque and surrounding groups that do not speak Euskara at a micro-geographical level. A total of ∼629,000 genome-wide variants were analyzed in 1,970 modern and ancient samples, including 190 new individuals from 18 sampling locations in the Basque area. For the first time, local- and wide-scale analyses from genome-wide data have been performed covering the whole Franco-Cantabrian region, combining allele frequency and haplotype-based methods. Our results show a clear differentiation of Basques from the surrounding populations, with the non-Euskara-speaking Franco-Cantabrians located in an intermediate position. Moreover, a sharp genetic heterogeneity within Basques is observed with significant correlation with geography. Finally, the detected Basque differentiation cannot be attributed to an external origin compared to other Iberian and surrounding populations. Instead, we show that such differentiation results from genetic continuity since the Iron Age, characterized by periods of isolation and lack of recent gene flow that might have been reinforced by the language barrier.
Segida:
The Franco-Cantabrian region, which includes the western part of the actual border of Spain and France through the Pyrenees, has drawn the attention of several disciplines due to its relevant role in European human history. This region was one of the most densely populated glacial refugia in Europe during the last glacial maximum (LGM), and it is related to pivotal archaeological discoveries, especially the oldest known European cave paintings1.
One of the most interesting features of the region is the presence of the Basques. They have been historically distributed along the western edge of the Pyrenees, spanning across the present Spanish and the French territories currently organized in seven provinces: Gipuzkoa; Bizkaia; Araba; and Nafarroa in the southern side of the Pyrenees and Zuberoa; Lapurdi; and Nafarroa Beherea located in the northern side. Basques have presumably stood out due to their historical, anthropological, and biological traits that define their singularity and isolation within the European context. A remarkable feature is Euskara, with its five main dialects (Figures 1 and S1; Table 1), which is a non-Indo-European language isolate with no close relationship to any other extant language23.
Beyond its current distribution, Euskara was historically spoken in the seven present provinces, before its geographic regression due to the pressures of Romance languages4.
Moreover, an archaic Euskara-related language is suggested to have been spoken in a much wider area in earlier periods. This area would include the neighboring Northern Spanish areas and the southern half of Aquitaine in France (Figure S1)5.
Whereas Euskara has been pointed as a possible cultural barrier between Basques and neighboring populations, its dialects might have also acted as an internal barrier6.
They show reduced interintelligibility, and a standard language (batua in Euskara) was not established until 1968 and was widely used only since the 1980s.
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Gehigarria:
PDFa: Genetic origins, singularity, and heterogeneity of Basques
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