University of Groningen Linguistic probes into human history Manni, Franz IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2017 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Manni, F. (2017). Linguistic probes into human history. University of Groningen. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne- amendment. Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 04-10-2021 LINGUISTIC PROBES INTO HUMAN HISTORY Franz Manni The work in this thesis has been carried out under the Graduate School for Humani‐ ties (GSH) from the University of Groningen and the Center of Language and Cogni‐ tion Groningen (CLCG). Groningen Dissertations in Linguistics n° 162 Franz Manni Linguistic Probes into Human History ISBN: 978‐90‐367‐9871‐6 (print version) ISBN: 978‐90‐367‐9872‐3 (electronic version) © 2017, F. Manni All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without prior permission of the author. Cover design: F. Manni © 2017 II Linguistic Probes into Human History PhD thesis to obtain the degree of PhD at the University of Groningen on the authority of the Rector Magnificus Prof. E. Sterken and in accordance with the decision by the College of Deans. This thesis will be defended in public on Thursday 6 July 2017 at 16:15 hours by Franz Manni born on 5 March 1973 in Ferrara, Italy III Supervisors Prof. J. Nerbonne Prof. S. Bahuchet Assessment committee Prof. M. Cysouw Prof. M. Dunn Prof. F. Zwarts IV I’ ho tanti vocavoli nella mia lingua materna, ch’i’ m’ho piuttosto da doler del bene intendere le cose, che del mancamento delle parole, colle quali io possa bene espriemere il concetto della mente mia. LEONARDO DA VINCI IN STANDARD ENGLISH: I have so many words in my mother tongue that I worry more about not understanding well than about lacking the words to express my thoughts. [Translation by J. Nerbonne] V Other translations, IN STANDARD DUTCH [T. by W. Heeringa]: In mijn taal zijn er zoveel woorden dat ik me er maar beter zorgen over kan maken dat ik goed begrijp wat er wordt gezegd, dan bang te zijn dat ik de woorden niet kan vinden om mijn gedachten goed te verwoorden. IN STANDARD GERMAN [T. by H. Goebl]: In meiner Muttersprache habe ich dermaßen viele Wörter, so dass ich mir eher darüber den Kopf zerbrechen müsste, die Dinge an sich gut zu verstehen, als darüber, zu wenig Wörter zu haben, um das, was ich denke, gut ausdrücken zu können. IN THE DIALECT OF THE CITY OF GRONINGEN [T. by W. Heeringa]: Mien moekes toal het zoʹn bult woorden dat ik mie der moar beter drok over moaken kin dat ik goud begriep wat of ter zegd wordt as baang te wezen dat ik de woorden nait vienden kin om mien gedachten goud oet te drukken. IN STANDARD FRENCH [T. by P. Mennecier]: Jʹai tant de mots dans ma langue maternelle que je me soucie plutôt de bien entendre les choses que de chercher les mots par lesquels exprimer le plus profond de ma pensée. IN THE DIALECT OF THE CITY OF FERRARA [T. by M. Leziroli and E. Rinaldi]: A gh’è acsì tant vucabol in tla miè lingua materna che piutòst am preocup ad ben intèndar i quei, chʹàm manca il paròl chʹim sèrav par riusir a dìr bèn quel chʹam frùla par la ment. IN RURAL FRISIAN [T. by D. Drukker and H. Sijens]: Myn memmetaal hat saʹn soad wurden dat ik der mar better oer yn noed sitte kin dat ik goed begryp wat der sein wurdt, as dat ik bang wêze moat dat ik de wurden net fine kin om myn tinzen goed te ferwurdzjen. IN FANG‐NTUMU [T. by R.S. Ollomo Hella]: ŋ́kɔ́bə́ wɔ̂ m óbə̄ lə̄ àgbì bíyɛ̂ . mà yɛ̀nà dàŋ bɛ́ɛ́ édzām dá dzôbàn mà yə̀m ná bífyɛ̄ mə́ ná byɔ́ èbàn bí bóó bóó mā ŋ́lō étē. VI IN MEMORIAM LAURO MANNI (1939 – 2017) Acknowledgments My sincerest gratitude goes to the supervisors and to the members of the assessment committee for their support and guidance. I also would like to acknowledge the Graduate School for Humanities (GSH) from the University of Groningen and the Center of Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG) for having allowed this dissertation. It is a pleasure to thank those that encouraged me, particularly Evelyne Heyer, Pierre Darlu, Hans Goebl, Marie‐Françoise Rombi and Philippe Mennecier. This dissertation is a collective enterprise: the names of many other scholars that provided help are listed at the beginning and at the end of each chapter. I thank them all. But John Nerbonne and Wilbert Heeringa deserve a special expression of gratitude for a collaboration that lasted fifteen years and that eventually turned into friendship. Let me say that I have been privileged to visit so often the Netherlands, and the city of Groningen in particular. My Dutch life has always been very enjoyable. Finally, I would like to name my family, my mother Marilena and my daughter Clelia. Actually, I had planned to show the finished dissertation to my father Lauro, because he truly loved the Letters, but I have been too late. Dank u wel en tot ziens! (The only Dutch words I can easily pronounce). VII VIII Contents 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 3 1.1 Why genetics and linguistics? 4 1.1.1 Some thoughts about the emergence of the language faculty “ 1.1.2 The emergence of the language faculty and the peopling 6 1.1.3 The interest of geneticists in the diversity of human languages 7 1.1.4 Towards a wider Anthropology 9 1.2 What family names tell about a population 10 1.2.1 1.2.1Surnames and dialects 12 1.2.2 How to compare dialects and surnames? 13 1.3 How to assess the reliability of linguistic classifications? 15 1.3.1 Efronʹs (1979) bootstrap “ 1.3.2 Felsensteinʹs (1985) bootstrap 16 1.3.3 Application of resampling techniques to dialectology 17 1.3.3.1 Bootstrap consensus trees “ 1.3.3.2 Adoption of a cut‐off value 18 1.4 The fuel: Lexical databases 19 1.4.1 The number of items “ 1.4.2 The choice of the words 20 1.4.3 Swadesh wordlists 1.5 Outline of the dissertation 22 1.5.1 CHAPTER 2: Sprachraum and genetics “ 1.5.2 CHAPTER 3: Projecting Dialect Distances to Geography 23 1.5.3 CHAPTER 4: To What Extent are Surnames Words? “ 1.5.4 CHAPTER 5: Surname and linguistic structure of Spain “ 1.5.5 CHAPTER 6: Linguistic probes into the Bantu history of Gabon 24 1.5.6 CHAPTER 7: A Central‐Asian linguistic survey 25 1.5.7 CHAPTER 8: General conclusions and new prospects 26 References 27 2. SPRACHRAUM AND GENETICS 35 2.1 Genetic mapping 36 2.2 Boundaries in the genetic landscape 43 2.3 How to identify populations in the landscape, the sampling 46 2.4 Regional studies 49 2.5 Concluding remarks 54 References 56 IX 3. PROJECTING DIALECT DISTANCES TO GEOGRAPHY: 63 BOOTSTRAP CLUSTERING VS. NOISY CLUSTERING 3.1 Introduction “ 3.2 Background and motivation “ 3.2.1 Data 66 3.3 Bootstrapping clustering “ 3.4 Clustering with noise 67 3.5 Projecting to geography 68 3.6 Results “ 3.7 Conclusions 69 References 70 4. TO WHAT EXTENT ARE SURNAMES WORDS? 75 COMPARING GEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS OF SURNAME AND DIALECT VARIATION IN THE NETHERLANDS 4.1 Introduction 76 4.1.1 Surnames 79 4.1.2 Dialects 80 4.2 Methodology and data “ 4.2.1 Data “ 4.2.1.1 Surnames “ 4.2.1.2 Dialects 81 4.2.2 Visualization of diversity “ 4.2.2.1 Multidimensional space: Principal component analysis “ 4.2.2.2 Geographic analysis: The Monmonier algorithm 82 4.2.2.2.1 The triangulation “ 4.2.2.2.2 The algorithm 83 4.2.2.2.3 Robustness of barriers “ 4.3 Results 84 4.3.1 Surnames “ 4.3.2 Dialects 88 4.4 Discussion 93 References 100 5. FOOTPRINTS OF MIDDLE AGES KINGDOMS ARE STILL VISIBLE 107 IN THE CONTEMPORARY SURNAME STRUCTURE OF SPAIN 5.1 Introduction “ 5.2 Methods 111 5.2.1 The surname data “ 5.2.1.1 Surnames: From isonymy measures of inbreeding to distances 114 5.2.1.2 Test of robustness ‐ bootstrap 115 5.2.2 The Linguistic Atlas of the Iberian Peninsula 117 5.2.2.1 Reanalysis of the dialectometric matrix of linguistic similarity 118 X 5.3 Results 120 5.3.1 Surname diversity in Spain ‐ General statistics “ 5.3.2 Isonymy levels 122 5.3.3 Surname diversity in Spain ‐ clustering 123 5.3.4 Linguistic diversity in Spain 124 5.3.5 Mantel correlations 126 5.4 Discussion 126 5.4.1 Variability of Spanish surnames: Patterns of diversity “ 5.4.2 Variability of Spanish surnames: Patterns of isonymy 128 5.4.3 Linguistic diversity 129 References 131 6.