29.3487, Confs: Transeurasian; Historical Linguistics/Gerrmany

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-3487. Tue Sep 11 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.3487, Confs:  Transeurasian; Historical Linguistics/Gerrmany

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Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2018 20:24:34
From: Alexander Savelyev [savelyev at shh.mpg.de]
Subject: Interdisciplinary Conference on the Prehistory of Transeurasian Millets and Beans, Languages and Genes

 
Interdisciplinary Conference on the Prehistory of Transeurasian Millets and Beans, Languages and Genes 

Date: 08-Jan-2019 - 11-Jan-2019 
Location: Jena, Thuringia, Germany 
Contact: Martine Robbeets 
Contact Email: robbeets at shh.mpg.de 
Meeting URL: http://robbeets.wixsite.com/transeurasian2019 

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics 

Language Family(ies): Altaic; Japonic; Korean; Mongolic; Tungus; Turkic 
Meeting Description: 

The question about the origin and dispersal of the Transeurasian languages is
one of the most disputed issues in linguistic history. In our conference, we
will address this question from an interdisciplinary perspective. Our key
objective is to effectively synthesize linguistic, archaeological and genetic
evidence in a single approach. To this end, we hope to bring together experts
in linguistics, archaeology and genetics and motivate them in leaving the
comfort zone of their own discipline to actively collaborate with scholars
from other disciplines. In order to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration,
we would like to try out a “tandem” format for our conference. We intend to
invite ca. 5 geneticists, 5 linguists and 5 archaeologists on the condition
that they can extend the invitation to at least one co-presenter from outside
their own discipline for a joint presentation on a common research question.

The term “Transeurasian” refers to a group of geographically adjacent
languages that include up to five existing language families: Turkic,
Mongolic, Tungusic, Koreanic and Japonic.

For linguists, the question of whether these five families descend from a
single common ancestor has been the topic of a longstanding debate. If
Transeurasian is indeed a valid genealogical grouping, new questions arise
with regard to the location of the original homeland, the timedepth, the
motivation of the break-up, the routes of dispersal and the areal contacts of
the Transeurasian languages. The individual families under discussion are
likely to have their earliest recoverable origins in the region of Southern
Manchuria around the first millennium BC. For linguists who do not wish to
support Transeurasian affiliation, it is a challenge to explain why Southern
Manchuria had such a high family density ratio in prehistory and why the
separation dates of the individual families are rather late in comparison with
other language families in East Asia.

Archaeologists have shown that the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of
Southern Manchuria were different from the farming populations of the Yellow
River region and the nomadic cultures of the Eurasian steppes. Although
archaeologists can locate the centers of agriculture in time and space, many
questions remain, such as the exact routes of agricultural dispersal, the
timing of the dispersals, the role of agriculture in subsistence, the nature
of non-agricultural traits and artifacts transmitted along with agriculture,
the reason why agriculture was spread to and adopted in new regions and the
evidence for interregional interaction.
 
Studies on the genetic history of ethnic groups speaking Transeurasian
languages have often focused on a subset of Transeurasian families or on one
specific language family. In contrast, there has been little interest in
addressing the broader question of whether there is a shared genetic
substratum common to all Transeurasian-speaking populations and delimiting
them from non-Transeurasian populations. However, recent studies show that
there is a common Ancient North East Asian lineage shared between
Transeurasian populations, which is best represented by contemporary Tungusic
speaking groups and displays increasing east-west admixture for Mongolic and
Turkic speaking populations from the Bronze age onwards. Given the current
state of research, genetics of Transeurasian prehistory would benefit from
more paleogenomic research of northeast China, Mongolia and Korea. 
 
Linguistics, archaeology and genetics can each uncover but a fraction of the
full story. The ultimate goal of our conference is to converge our partial
perspectives into a more holistic understanding of what really happened in
Transeurasian prehistory.
 






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