Abstract:
:The study of language origin and divergence is important for understanding the history of human populations and their cultures. The Sino-Tibetan language family is the second largest in the world after Indo-European, and there is a long-running debate about its phylogeny and the time depth of its original divergence1. Here we perform a Bayesian phylogenetic analysis to examine two competing hypotheses of the origin of the Sino-Tibetan language family: the 'northern-origin hypothesis' and the 'southwestern-origin hypothesis'. The northern-origin hypothesis states that the initial expansion of Sino-Tibetan languages occurred approximately 4,000-6,000 years before present (BP; taken as AD 1950) in the Yellow River basin of northern China2-4, and that this expansion is associated with the development of the Yangshao and/or Majiayao Neolithic cultures. The southwestern-origin hypothesis states that an early expansion of Sino-Tibetan languages occurred before 9,000 years BP from a region in southwest Sichuan province in China5 or in northeast India6, where a high diversity of Tibeto-Burman languages exists today. Consistent with the northern-origin hypothesis, our Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of 109 languages with 949 lexical root-meanings produced an estimated time depth for the divergence of Sino-Tibetan languages of approximately 4,200-7,800 years BP, with an average value of approximately 5,900 years BP. In addition, the phylogeny supported a dichotomy between Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman languages. Our results are compatible with the archaeological records, and with the farming and language dispersal hypothesis7 of agricultural expansion in China. Our findings provide a linguistic foothold for further interdisciplinary studies of prehistoric human activity in East Asia.
journal_name
Naturejournal_title
Natureauthors
Zhang M,Yan S,Pan W,Jin Ldoi
10.1038/s41586-019-1153-zsubject
Has Abstractpub_date
2019-05-01 00:00:00pages
112-115issue
7754eissn
0028-0836issn
1476-4687pii
10.1038/s41586-019-1153-zjournal_volume
569pub_type
历史文章,杂志文章相关文献
NATURE文献大全abstract::We have sequenced and annotated the genome of fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe), which contains the smallest number of protein-coding genes yet recorded for a eukaryote: 4,824. The centromeres are between 35 and 110 kilobases (kb) and contain related repeats including a highly conserved 1.8-kb element. Regions...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/nature724
更新日期:2002-02-21 00:00:00
abstract::Transport of fermions, particles with half-integer spin, is central to many fields of physics. Electron transport runs modern technology, defining states of matter such as superconductors and insulators, and electron spin is being explored as a new carrier of information. Neutrino transport energizes supernova explosi...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/nature09989
更新日期:2011-04-14 00:00:00
abstract::Piezoelectric materials, which convert mechanical to electrical energy (and vice versa), are crucial in medical imaging, telecommunication and ultrasonic devices. A new generation of single-crystal materials, such as Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PZN-PT) and Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT), exhibit a piezoelectric effect ...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/35002022
更新日期:2000-01-20 00:00:00
abstract::The microscopic origin of superconductivity in the high-transition-temperature (high-T(c)) copper oxides remains the subject of active inquiry; several of their electronic characteristics are well established as universal to all the known materials, forming the experimental foundation that all theories must address. T...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/nature01877
更新日期:2003-07-31 00:00:00
abstract::The sense of smell is highly evolved in mammals, allowing discrimination between a vast number of odorants, with detection thresholds as low as 10(-17) M (ref. 1). Although several features of mammalian olfactory transduction have been revealed by biochemical and molecular biological studies, the odorant-induced membr...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/366283a0
更新日期:1993-11-18 00:00:00
abstract::It has long been contentious whether the large representation of the fovea in the primate visual cortex (V1) indicates a selective magnification of this part of the retina, or whether it merely reflects the density of retinal ganglion cells. The measurement of the retinal ganglion-cell density is complicated by latera...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/341643a0
更新日期:1989-10-19 00:00:00
abstract::Ia antigens are membrane-bound glycoproteins that play a part in antigen recognition and subsequent cell-cell interactions in the immune response. In the mouse they are coded for by the I region of the major histocompatibility complex H-2 and have been demonstrated on B lymphocytes, monocytes, activated T cells, macro...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/303426a0
更新日期:1983-06-02 00:00:00
abstract::Until now, photovoltaics--the conversion of sunlight to electrical power--has been dominated by solid-state junction devices, often made of silicon. But this dominance is now being challenged by the emergence of a new generation of photovoltaic cells, based, for example, on nanocrystalline materials and conducting pol...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/35104607
更新日期:2001-11-15 00:00:00
abstract::The signal recognition particle (SRP) consists of one RNA and six protein subunits. The N-terminal domain of the 54K subunit contains a putative GTP-binding site, whereas the C-terminal domain binds signal sequences and SRP RNA. Binding of SRP to the signal sequence as it emerges from the ribosome creates a cytosolic ...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/366351a0
更新日期:1993-11-25 00:00:00
abstract::Zika virus (ZIKV) is a flavivirus that is responsible for the current epidemic in Brazil and the Americas. ZIKV has been causally associated with fetal microcephaly, intrauterine growth restriction, and other birth defects in both humans and mice. The rapid development of a safe and effective ZIKV vaccine is a global ...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/nature18952
更新日期:2016-08-25 00:00:00
abstract::Visual transduction in vertebrate photoreceptors is thought to involve a diffusible internal transmitter which links photon absorption in disk membranes to the conductance decrease in the plasma membrane of the outer segment. The desensitisation of the photoresponse which occurs during and after illumination may also ...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/283085a0
更新日期:1980-01-03 00:00:00
abstract::Type II topoisomerases help regulate DNA topology during transcription, replication and recombination by catalysing DNA strand transfer through transient double-stranded breaks. All type II topoisomerases described so far are members of a single protein family. We have cloned and sequenced the genes encoding the A and...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/386414a0
更新日期:1997-03-27 00:00:00
abstract::Mechanical milling is an effective technique for the preparation of fine metallic and ceramic powders and can also be used to drive a wide range of chemical reactions. Milling devices include planetary machines, attritors and vibrational mills; products include amorphous, nanocrystalline and quasicrystalline materials...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/nature00985
更新日期:2002-09-12 00:00:00
abstract::The species diversity of natural communities is often strongly related to their productivity. The pattern of this relationship seems to vary: diversity is known to increase monotonically with productivity, to decrease monotonically with productivity, and to be unimodally related to productivity, with maximum diversity...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/35020060
更新日期:2000-08-03 00:00:00
abstract::High-pressure transitions are thought to modify hydrogen molecules to a molecular metallic solid and finally to an atomic metal1, which is predicted to have exotic physical properties and the topology of a two-component (electron and proton) superconducting superfluid condensate2,3. Therefore, understanding such trans...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1565-9
更新日期:2019-09-01 00:00:00
abstract::The yeast [PSI+] element represents a new type of genetic inheritance, in which changes in phenotype are transmitted by a 'protein only' mechanism reminiscent of the 'protein-only' transmission of mammalian prion diseases. The underlying molecular mechanisms for both are poorly understood and it is not clear how simil...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/23048
更新日期:1999-08-05 00:00:00
abstract::B-RAF is the most frequently mutated protein kinase in human cancers. The finding that oncogenic mutations in BRAF are common in melanoma, followed by the demonstration that these tumours are dependent on the RAF/MEK/ERK pathway, offered hope that inhibition of B-RAF kinase activity could benefit melanoma patients. He...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/nature09454
更新日期:2010-09-30 00:00:00
abstract::First recognized as regulators of development in worms and fruitflies, microRNAs are emerging as pivotal modulators of mammalian cardiovascular development and disease. Individual microRNAs modulate the expression of collections of messenger RNA targets that often have related functions, thereby governing complex biol...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章,评审
doi:10.1038/nature09783
更新日期:2011-01-20 00:00:00
abstract::For life to be sustained, mistakes in DNA repair must be tolerated when damage obscures the genetic information. In bacteria such as Escherichia coli, DNA damage elicits the well regulated 'SOS response'. For the extreme case of damage that cannot be repaired by conventional enzymes, there are proteins that allow the ...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/380727a0
更新日期:1996-04-25 00:00:00
abstract::To trigger class II-restricted T cells, antigen presenting cells have to capture antigens, process them and display their fragments in association with class II molecules. In most species, activated T cells express class II molecules; however, no evidence has been found that these cells can present soluble antigens. T...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/334530a0
更新日期:1988-08-11 00:00:00
abstract::Large mammals, including humans, save much of the energy needed for running by means of elastic structures in their legs and feet. Kinetic and potential energy removed from the body in the first half of the stance phase is stored briefly as elastic strain energy and then returned in the second half by elastic recoil. ...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/325147a0
更新日期:1987-01-08 00:00:00
abstract::Most sensory information destined for the neocortex is relayed through the thalamus, where considerable transformation occurs1,2. One means of transformation involves interactions between excitatory thalamocortical neurons that carry data to the cortex and inhibitory neurons of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) tha...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2512-5
更新日期:2020-07-01 00:00:00
abstract::A paramutation is an epigenetic interaction between two alleles of a locus, through which one allele induces a heritable modification in the other allele without modifying the DNA sequence. The paramutated allele itself becomes paramutagenic, that is, capable of epigenetically converting a new paramutable allele. Here...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/nature11416
更新日期:2012-10-04 00:00:00
abstract::Pinocytosis and membrane ruffling are among the earliest and most dramatic cellular responses to stimulation by growth factors or other mitogens. The small Ras-related G proteins Rho and Rac have a regulatory role in membrane ruffling and activated Rho has been shown to stimulate pinocytosis when microinjected into Xe...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/382177a0
更新日期:1996-07-11 00:00:00
abstract::The evolutionary theory of ageing explains why ageing occurs, giving valuable insight into the mechanisms underlying the complex cellular and molecular changes that contribute to senescence. Such understanding also helps to clarify how the genome shapes the ageing process, thereby aiding the study of the genetic facto...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章,评审
doi:10.1038/35041682
更新日期:2000-11-09 00:00:00
abstract::Epidermal growth factor (EGF) and transforming growth factor type I (TGF) are polypeptides of 53 and 50 amino acid residues, respectively. Both bind to EGF receptor, a 1,200-residue transmembranous glycoprotein, leading to phosphorylation of the receptor, enhancement of its tyrosine-specific kinase activity and ultima...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/313491a0
更新日期:1985-02-07 00:00:00
abstract::The emergence and outgrowth of a population of tumour cells resistant to multiple drugs is a major problem in the chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer. We have used highly drug-resistant cell lines developed in vitro to study the molecular basis of multidrug resistance. In these cell lines high levels of resistance ar...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/323728a0
更新日期:1986-10-23 00:00:00
abstract::Fermi-liquid theory (the standard model of metals) has been challenged by the discovery of anomalous properties in an increasingly large number of metals. The anomalies often occur near a quantum critical point--a continuous phase transition in the limit of absolute zero, typically between magnetically ordered and par...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/nature01968
更新日期:2003-10-09 00:00:00
abstract::Temperature and fluid pressure conditions control rock deformation and mineralization on geological faults, and hence the distribution of earthquakes. Typical intraplate continental crust has hydrostatic fluid pressure and a near-surface thermal gradient of 31 ± 15 degrees Celsius per kilometre. At temperatures above ...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/nature22355
更新日期:2017-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::The regulation of intracellular pH (pHi) is essential for normal cell function, and controlled changes in pHi may play a central role in cell activation. Sodium-dependent Cl-HCO3 exchange is the dominant mechanism of pHi regulation in the invertebrate cells examined, and also occurs in mammalian cells. The transporter...
journal_title:Nature
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1038/332262a0
更新日期:1988-03-17 00:00:00