The origin and uniqueness of Basque genetics revealed

[Judi Lynn]

26-MAR-2021

A new study reveals that the genetic uniqueness of the Basque population is not due to its external origin in respect of other Iberian populations, but reduced contacts as of the Iron Age.

UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA - BARCELONA

The Basques are a unique population in Western Europe; their language is not related to any Indo-European language. Furthermore, genetically speaking, they have been considered to have distinct features. However, until now there was no conclusive study to explain the origin of their singularity.

Now, an international research team led by UPF has confirmed that the Basques' genetic uniqueness is the result of genetic continuity since the Iron Age, characterized by periods of isolation and scarce gene flow, and not its external origin in respect of other Iberian populations.

The study, led by David Comas, principal investigator at UPF and at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE: CSIC-UPF), has involved the most comprehensive geographic sampling to date of the Basque population, with over 600,000 genetic markers throughout the genome for each individual.

The result of the multidisciplinary study, which involved a team of linguists and geneticists, reveals in the journal Current Biology that the cultural barrier of the language promoted the isolation of the Basque population from subsequent population contacts, such as the influence of the Roman empire or the Islamic occupation of the peninsula, and even acted as an internal barrier in some cases due to the use of dialects.

More:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/upf--toa032621.php

[niyad]

1. Thank you so much for sharing this fascinating information.

[DFW]

2. As they say in Bilbao, "neuk pixkat euskera aitxutendot!" (I understand a little Basque)

VERY pixkat (little), in fact. I know a few phrases I learned from Basque friends I met while living in Spain, but the language is so intricate, learning it from scratch is a full-time scholarly undertaking. As it is, the Bilbao dialect is distinct from the Donostia (San Sebastian) version, though they are apparently quite mutually intelligible. I wouldn't know, as beyond the few phrases I remember from my Bilbao friends from 50 years ago, I'm a complete ignorant. Their number system is so complicated, even the French would scratch their heads. It's on a par with Danish, which for some reason is completely off the wall once you get past 49. In Danish, 56 is expressed as "six and half a twenty back from three times twenty." Basque gets complicated already at 30 ("twenty-ten" ).

[PatSeg]

3. That is fascinating

It makes my head hurt a bit, but still very intriguing - "six and half a twenty back from three times twenty."

[DFW]

5. The Danes speak very quickly, too, making it worse

They do that up to 99 (ni og helvfems, or nine and half a twenty back of five twenties), but call it quits before calling 100 "five twenties." When expressing 100, they don't say "fems" any more, but rather "hundrede." Go figure. No wonder Norwegians and Swedes roll their eyes when they hear Danish. Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are all essentialy the same language, but with local idiosyncrasies thrown in, 97% of which are in Danish.

[PatSeg]

7. I can imagine

if they speak quickly, it would have your head spinning, though it is probably very plain and simple to them.

[BuddhaGirl]

9. Super interesting - thanks!

As a teenager, I spent a couple of weeks in the Basque fishing village of St-Jean-de-Luz (near Biarritz). I went to summer school there for French, but picked up a little Basque, which I've completely forgotten LOL

It was a memorable time. The people were super friendly and welcoming. I hope to go back there one day.

[joetheman]

4. Does this mean extreme incest? nt

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. Their heterozygosity index is indeed on the low-end...

Last edited Sun Mar 28, 2021, 07:46 PM - Edit history (1)

... but not too horrible.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3118713/
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Heterozygosity levels in the Basque provinces were on the low end of the European distribution (0.805-0.812). The MDS plot of genetic distances revealed that the Basques differed from both the Caucasian and North African populations with respect to autosomal STR variation.
-----

I think that mine was around 1.6 when I used the "Are Your Parents Related?" tool on GEDmatch a few years ago, after uploading my raw DNA data there. The conclusion was that my parents weren't closely related at all, which agreed with my genealogical research that showed no common ancestors going back a minimum of 6 generations on all branches of my family tree.

I was mostly curious because I inherited an extremely rare genetic condition, and a doctor told me years ago that my parents were probably closely related for me to get two bad copies of the gene. Gee, thanks doc! And now I know that you were wrong!

EDIT: I'm surely confusing "1.6" with something else from years ago. I just checked it again, and all it says is there's 0 cM of shared DNA segments found, and the conclusion: "This analysis indicates that your parents are probably not related within recent generations."

[niyad]

6. There is an interesting article in Smithsonian about Basque communities in the US. When I

read your OP, I remembered a Basque community from when I was in NV. The town of Winnemucca has a large Basque community (considering the town's small population). I remember being excited about going to the festival, and eating at the Martin Hotel several times. It was so very interesting learning some of Basque history.

Thank you for bringing back such a lovely memory.

[stopdiggin]

8. primarily a language barrier?

now that really surprises ... Really interesting.

[DFW]

11. The Basques even have their own "E Pluribus Unum"

There are seven Basque provinces between Spain and France. The Basque nation, "Euzkadi," has its own version of E Pluribus Unum. You can see it on banners in areas of the USA that have a heavy concentration of Basque immigrants, such as Elko, Nevada. It is simply "Zazpiak Bat." Zazpi is Basque for "seven," and the "-ak" is an ending indicating a plural. "Bat" is their word for the number "one." So their motto is " (Out of) the seven, one." I.e. out of the seven provinces, one (Basque) nation.

Adding "ak" to make a plural is sometimes used in cases where Castilian uses a plural, but English doesn't. If you ask "what time is it?" and it is 4:00, the answer would be "laurak," lau meaning "four." Thus a Basque speaker would say the equivalent of the Castilian "las cuatro." The Basque word "txakurra" (English: dog) becomes a plural by making it "txakurrak" (English: dogs, Republicanese: dog's).