Papers by George van Driem
Nepali Times, 22 August 2020, 2020
Race against time: There can be no selective indignation as racism remains tenaciously ubiquitous... more Race against time: There can be no selective indignation as racism remains tenaciously ubiquitous around the world
Evolutionary Human Sciences, 2020 (2): e19., 2020
Over two decades ago, it was observed that the linguistic affinity of the language spoken by a pa... more Over two decades ago, it was observed that the linguistic affinity of the language spoken by a particular population tended to correlate with the predominant paternal, i.e. Y-chromosomal, lineage found in that population. Such correlations were found to be ubiquitous but not universal, and the striking exceptions to such conspicuous patterns of correlation between linguistic and genetic phylogeography elicit particular interest and beg for clarification. Within the Austroasiatic language family, the Munda languages are a clear-cut case of father tongues, whereas Japanese and Korean are manifestly not. In this study, the cases of Munda and Japanese are juxtaposed. A holistic understanding of these contrasting cases of ethnolinguistic prehistory with respect to the father tongue correlation will first necessitate a brief exposition of the phylogeography of the Y chromosomal lineage O. Then triangulation discloses some contours and particulars of both long lost episodes of ethnolinguistic prehistory.
Etymologus: Čas pro sladkou tečku, 2020
The Tocharians were thus named because the ancient speakers of Turfanian and Kuchean were misiden... more The Tocharians were thus named because the ancient speakers of Turfanian and Kuchean were misidentified with the historical Τόχαροι, but the misnomer has stuck. The question, however, remains moot as to whether the Tocharians might have been the same people as the Seres of the Silk Road. A misnomer need not be inadvertant but may be a deliberate part of an attempt at rebranding. The untold history of the origins and subsequent va- garies of lexicostatistics and glottochronology is particularly instructive in this regard. A recent attempt to rebrand this approach as “phylogenetics” has failed to alleviate the methodological problems afflicting this modus operandi, merely afforded temporary re- lief to its practitioners from the pressure to address persistent unresolved issues.
Nature Scientific Reports, 10: 5593, 2020
Both classical and recent genetic studies have unanimously concluded that the genetic landscape o... more Both classical and recent genetic studies have unanimously concluded that the genetic landscape of South Asia is unique. At long distances the 'isolation-by-distance' model appears to correspond well with the genetic data, whereas at short distances several other factors, including the caste, have been shown to be strong determinant factors. In addition with these, tribal populations speaking various languages add yet another layer of genetic complexity. The Kol are the third most populous tribal population in India, comprising communities speaking Austroasiatic languages of the Northern Munda branch. Yet, the Kol have not hitherto undergone in-depth genetic analysis. In the present study, we have analysed two Kol groups of central and western India for hundreds thousands of autosomal and several mitochondrial DNA makers to infer their fine genetic structure and affinities to other Eurasian populations. In contrast, with their known linguistic affinity, the Kol share their more recent common ancestry with the Indo-European and Dravidian speaking populations. The geographic-genetic neighbour tests at both the temporal and spatial levels have suggested some degree of excess allele sharing of Kol1 with Kol2, thereby indicating their common stock. Our extensive analysis on the Kol ethnic group shows South Asia to be a living genetics lab, where real-time tests can be performed on existing hypotheses.
The Ancestry of the Languages and Peoples of China (Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series № 29), 2019
van Driem, George. 2019. ‘The ancestry of the Chinese people based on language and genes’, pp. 87... more van Driem, George. 2019. ‘The ancestry of the Chinese people based on language and genes’, pp. 87–121 in Kong Jiangping, ed.,The Ancestry of the Languages and Peoples of China (Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series № 29). Hong Kong: Chinese University Press of Hong Kong.
The Social Dynamics of Pronominal Systems: A Comparative Approach, 2019
‘The dynamics of Nepali pronominal distinctions in familiar, casual and formal relationships’, pp... more ‘The dynamics of Nepali pronominal distinctions in familiar, casual and formal relationships’, pp. 151–203 in Paul Bouissac, ed., The Social Dynamics of Pronominal Systems: A Comparative Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 82 (1): 190-192., 2019
‘Review: Lauren Gawne and Nathan Wayne Hill (eds.): Evidential Systems of Tibetan Languages (Tren... more ‘Review: Lauren Gawne and Nathan Wayne Hill (eds.): Evidential Systems of Tibetan Languages (Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs, 302.) 472 pp. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2017. £91. ISBN 978 3 11 046018 6. doi: 10.1017/S0041977X19000181’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 82 (1): 190-192.
Journal of the Asiatic Society, LX (4): 1-38., 2018
‘The East Asian linguistic phylum: A reconstruction based on language and genes’, Journal of the ... more ‘The East Asian linguistic phylum: A reconstruction based on language and genes’, Journal of the Asiatic Society, LX (4): 1-38.
Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society, 11 (2): xcviii-cx., 2018
It has been fourteen years since the appearance of the first edition of this compendium of Trans-... more It has been fourteen years since the appearance of the first edition of this compendium of Trans-Himalayan languages. In its second edition, the volume has swollen to encompass 53 chapters. As Simon and Hill (2015: 381) noted, the language family "is known by names including 'Tibeto-Burman', 'Sino-Tibetan' and 'Trans-Himalayan', of which the last is the most neutral and accurate". McColl et al. (2018: 362) put it more succinctly in their Science article, stating simply: "Trans-Himalayan (formerly Sino-Tibetan)". In the very title to this volume, the two editors, Graham Ward Thurgood and Randy John LaPolla, loudly proclaim their adherence to the obsolete and empirically unsupported "Sino-Tibetan" phylogeny, but many of the contributors to this Routledge volume do not themselves subscribe to the same antiquated Indo-Chinese understanding of the language family. Outside of this volume, a good number of the contributing scholars openly abjure this family tree model. Later, we shall examine how the outspoken bias of the two editors pervades the volume in a thorough and more insidious manner than in the first edition. The anthology comprises 44 grammatical sketches, two of which are devoted to dead Trans-Himalayan languages, five survey articles, two editorial pieces, a piece on the Chinese writing system and a discussion of word order. Editorial misrepresentations, the state of the art and Gerber's Law This volume contains many valuable, some truly wonderful and a few problematic instalments, but the Routledge compendium is truly marred by the two editorial pieces authored by Thurgood and LaPolla and positioned at the very beginning of the book. In addition to the two large editorial pieces, the first section also contains a brief study of word order in Trans-Himalayan languages by Matthew Synge Dryer. A volume that purports to present a general overview of the field should dispassionately present different positions held by specialists in that field, and the failure even just once to mention that alternative views exist that are quite at variance with Thurgood and LaPolla's own particular view characterises an unfair comportment on the part of the two editors that is not just unsportsmanlike, but unscholarly and unworthy of our field. For well over a century, the phylogeny of the language family has been a matter of considerable controversy. Yet both editors are careful to cite and quote only such sources as happen to agree with their own model. The empirically unsupported Indo-Chinese taxonomy relentlessly propounded by an ever dwindling number of "true believer" Sino-Tibetanists permeates the very arrangement of the book, and the two editors have even wilfully skewed the contents of the volume in order to fit their obsolete Indo-Chinese family tree. In keeping with this "Sino-Tibetan" conceit, the editors have included six instalments on Sinitic, though the sheer brevity of Dah-an Ho's instalment on Mandarin could reflect a reluctance on the part of its contributor to indulge the paradigm championed by the two editors. Indeed, as already noted, many of the scholars who have contributed to this volume reject the language family tree model touted by the editors. Moreover, the editorial twosome surreptitiously sneak their own "Rung" subgroup into the table of contents, thereby falsely suggesting that this fiction represents a valid taxon within the family. To exacerbate matters, their table of contents incompetently groups Tshangla and Newar as "Bodish" languages.
Nicolaas Witsen, the Tibetan script and the Tangut languages, 2018
‘Nicolaas Witsen, the Tibetan script and the Tangut languages’, pp. 539-564 in Bruno Naarden, Tom... more ‘Nicolaas Witsen, the Tibetan script and the Tangut languages’, pp. 539-564 in Bruno Naarden, Tom van Brederode, Tjeerd de Graaf, Wim Honselaar, Janine Jager, Cecilia Odé, Lisa van Schaik en Nicoline van der Sijs, eds., The Fascination with Inner Eurasian Languages in the 17th Century: The Amsterdam mayor Nicolaas Witsen and his collection of ‘Tartarian’ vocabularies and scripts. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Pegasus.
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 41 (1): 106-127., 2018
This invited response to a piece by LaPolla, published in issue 39/2 of LTBA, addresses both LaPo... more This invited response to a piece by LaPolla, published in issue 39/2 of LTBA, addresses both LaPolla's misrepresentations of the history of linguistics and his flawed understanding of historical linguistics. The history of linguistic thought with regard to the Tibeto-Burman or Trans-Himalayan language family vs. the Indo-Chinese or "Sino-Tibetan" family tree model is elucidated and juxtaposed against the remarkable robustness of certain ahistorical myths and the persistence of unscientific argumentation by vocal proponents of the Sino-Tibetanist paradigm, such as LaPolla.
Science, 361: 88-92., 2018
The human occupation history of Southeast Asia (SEA) remains heavily debated. Current evidence su... more The human occupation history of Southeast Asia (SEA) remains heavily debated. Current evidence suggests that SEA was occupied by Hòabìnhian hunter-gatherers until ~4000 years ago, when farming economies developed and expanded, restricting foraging groups to remote habitats. Some argue that agricultural development was indigenous; others favor the "two-layer" hypothesis that posits a southward expansion of farmers giving rise to present-day Southeast Asian genetic diversity. By sequencing 26 ancient human genomes (25 from SEA, 1 Japanese Jōmon), we show that neither interpretation fits the complexity of Southeast Asian history: Both Hòabìnhian hunter-gatherers and East Asian farmers contributed to current Southeast Asian diversity, with further migrations affecting island SEA and Vietnam. Our results help resolve one of the long-standing controversies in Southeast Asian prehistory.
Encyclopaedia of Life Sciences, Wiley Online Library eLS, 14 June 2018, 2018
Although the tribal populations represent a fraction of the South Asian population, there are onl... more Although the tribal populations represent a fraction of the South Asian population, there are only very few tribal populations ranging in the millions. The Central Indian tribal population Gond is one of them, with a census size of approximately 12 million people. Various disciplines of the humanities have drawn conflicting conclusions with regard to their origin. Therefore, in our previous study, we analysed hundreds of thousands of autosomal markers and found out that Gonds share their closest genetic similarity with the Aus-troasiatic (Munda) populations. While our findings support our previous contention, the current analysis has revealed that the Gonds occupy a transitional position between Dravidian and Munda groups. Sex-specific markers also differentiate the Gond substantially from the Indian Austroasiatic (Munda) and Dravidian (Telugu) speakers. Taken together, we suggest a unique and distinct genetic ancestry of the Gond population of South Asia.
Molecular Biology and Evolution, 35 (8): 1916–1933, 2018
We genotyped 738 individuals belonging to 49 populations from Nepal, Bhutan, North India, or Tibe... more We genotyped 738 individuals belonging to 49 populations from Nepal, Bhutan, North India, or Tibet at over 500,000 SNPs, and analyzed the genotypes in the context of available worldwide population data in order to investigate the demographic history of the region and the genetic adaptations to the harsh environment. The Himalayan populations resembled other South and East Asians, but in addition displayed their own specific ancestral component and showed strong population structure and genetic drift. We also found evidence for multiple admixture events involving Himalayan populations and South/East Asians between 200 and 2,000 years ago. In comparisons with available ancient genomes, the Himalayans, like other East and South Asian populations, showed similar genetic affinity to Eurasian hunter-gatherers (a 24,000-year-old Upper Palaeolithic Siberian), and the related Bronze Age Yamnaya. The high-altitude Himalayan populations all shared a specific ancestral component, suggesting that genetic adaptation to life at high altitude originated only once in this region and subsequently spread. Combining four approaches to identifying specific positively selected loci, we confirmed that the strongest signals of high-altitude adaptation were located near the Endothelial PAS domain-containing protein 1 and Egl-9 Family Hypoxia Inducible Factor 1 loci, and discovered eight additional robust signals of high-altitude adaptation, five of which have strong biological functional links to such adaptation. In conclusion, the demographic history of Himalayan populations is complex, with strong local differentiation, reflecting both genetic and cultural factors; these populations also display evidence of multiple genetic adaptations to high-altitude environments.
Human Genetics, 137 (2): 129–139, 2018
Rakesh Tamang, Gyaneshwer Chaubey, Amrita Nandan, Periyasamy Govindaraj, Vipin Kumar Singh, Niraj... more Rakesh Tamang, Gyaneshwer Chaubey, Amrita Nandan, Periyasamy Govindaraj, Vipin Kumar Singh, Niraj Rai, Chandana Basu Mallick, Vishwas Sharma, Varun Kumar Sharma, Anish M. Shah, Albert Lalremruata, Alla G. Reddy, Deepa Selvi Rani, Pilot Doviah, Neetu Negi, Yarin Hadid, Veena Pande, Satti Vishnupriya, George van Driem, Doron M. Behar, Tikaram Sharma, Lalji Singh, Richard Villems and Kumarasamy Thangaraj. 2018. ‘Reconstructing the demographic history of the Himalayan and adjoining populations’, Human Genetics, 137 (2): 129–139.
Gender, Poverty and Livelihood in the Eastern Himalaya, 2018
‘The Eastern Himalaya and the Mongoloid myth’, pp. 12-41 in Sanjoy Hazarika and
Reshmi Banerjee,... more ‘The Eastern Himalaya and the Mongoloid myth’, pp. 12-41 in Sanjoy Hazarika and
Reshmi Banerjee, eds., Gender, Poverty and Livelihood in the Eastern Himalaya.
Abingdon: Routledge.
The domestications and the domesticators of Asian rice, 2017
van Driem, George. 2017. ‘The domestications and the domesticators of Asian rice’, pp. 183-214 in... more van Driem, George. 2017. ‘The domestications and the domesticators of Asian rice’, pp. 183-214 in Martine Robbeets and Alexander Savelyev, eds., Language Dispersal Beyond Farming. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Linguistics, 2017
Several language families and a few language isolates are represented in the Himalayas, the world... more Several language families and a few language isolates are represented in the Himalayas, the world's greatest massif, running a length of over 3,600 km. The most well-represented language family in this region happens to be the Trans-Himalayan language family, whose very centre of gravity and phylogenetic diversity is situated within the Eastern Himalaya. This most populous language family on our planet in terms of numbers of speakers used to be known as Tibeto-Burman but, in some circles, the family formerly also went by the names "Indo-Chinese" or "Sino-Tibetan", the latter two labels actually designating empirically unsupported and now obsolete models of language relationship. The study of Trans-Himalayan historical grammar began with Brian Houghton Hodgson in the 1830s, who during this time served at Kathmandu as the British Resident to the Kingdom of Nepal. Periodically, minor studies devoted attention to several of the more salient morphosyntactic phenomena of Trans-Himalayan historical grammar, but Stuart Wolfenden contributed the first major monograph to the subject in the 1920s. Finally, the historical morphosyntax of the Trans-Himalayan language family came to be the focus of numerous linguistic studies from the 1970s onward, and since that time our understanding of the historical grammar of the language family has changed drastically.
Himalayan Linguistics, 16 (1): 151-156, 2017
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Papers by George van Driem
Reshmi Banerjee, eds., Gender, Poverty and Livelihood in the Eastern Himalaya.
Abingdon: Routledge.
Reshmi Banerjee, eds., Gender, Poverty and Livelihood in the Eastern Himalaya.
Abingdon: Routledge.
with a Guide to Roman Dzongkha and to Phonological Dzongkha