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Linguistic Differentiation (linguistic + differentiation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Life Sciences75%

Selected Abstracts

The Language That Came Down the Hill: Slang, Crime, and Citizenship in Rio de Janeiro

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 1 2009
Jennifer Roth-Gordon
ABSTRACT, In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the register of slang has historically been embraced to forge salient social and spatial distinctions, demarcating the physical space of the favela (shantytown) and naturalizing the exclusion of its residents. In this article, I examine the ongoing enregisterment of slang in Rio's current context of profound social inequality, democratic instability, heightened urban violence, and geographic proximity. Within this climate of fear and insecurity, newly vulnerable and newly marginalized city residents draw on and reify salient speech repertoires to negotiate rights to the city and to the nation-state that have become increasingly threatened along socioeconomic, racial, and residential lines. I argue that the enregisterment of slang constructs newly emergent citizenship categories that both challenge and reinforce Brazil's entrenched regime of differentiated citizenship, illuminating the productive role of linguistic differentiation in the modern nation-state. [Keywords: slang, crime, citizenship, marginality, Brazil] [source]

Study of GM immunoglobulin allotypic system in Berbers and Arabs from Morocco

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2006
C. Coudray
The GM immunoglobulin allotype polymorphism was investigated in four Moroccan populations: three Berber groups from Khenifra (Middle Atlas), Amizmiz (High Atlas), and Bouhria (Beni Snassen) and one Arabic-speaking sample from the Doukkala area (Abda, Chaouia, Doukkali, and Tadla districts in south-central Morocco). In order to characterize the genetic relationships between the populations, our results were compared with those obtained for other North African groups (from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Niger) and for Middle-East Africans, sub-Saharans, and Southwest Europeans. Based on GM haplotype frequencies, Factorial Correspondence Analyses, FST significance testing, and hierarchical analyses of variance were performed. Our results reveal that Moroccan populations have heterogeneous GM profiles with high frequencies of GM haplotypes in Europeans (from 76% for Doukkala to 88% for Bouhria) and relatively high frequencies of GM haplotypes in sub-Saharans (from 11% for Bouhria to 23% for Amizmiz). The genetic diversity observed among Moroccans is not significantly correlated with either geographic or linguistic differentiation. In spite of their cultural and historical differentiation, we did not discover any significant genetic differences between Berbers and Arabic-speakers from Morocco. However, when large geographical areas are considered, our population samples are integrated in the North African GM variation, significantly distant from sub-Saharan groups but with a close relationship with Southwest European populations. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:23,34, 2006. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

mtDNA and Y-chromosome variation in the Talysh of Iran and Azerbaijan

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
Ivan Nasidze
Abstract The Northern Talysh from Azerbaijan and the Southern Talysh from Iran self-identify as one ethnic group and speak a Northwestern Iranian language. However, the Northern and Southern Talysh dialects are so different that they may actually be separate languages. Does this linguistic differentiation reflect internal change due to isolation, or could contact-induced change have played a role? We analyzed mtDNA HVI sequences, 11 Y-chromosome bi-allelic markers, and 9 Y-STR loci in Northern and Southern Talysh and compared them with their neighboring groups. The mtDNA data show a close relatedness of both groups with each other and with neighboring groups, whereas the Northern Talysh Y-chromosome variation differs from that of neighboring groups, probably as a result of genetic drift. This genetic drift most likely reflects a founder event in the male gene pool of Northern Talysh: either fewer males than females migrated to Azerbaijan, or there was a higher degree of relatedness among the male migrants. Since we find no evidence of substantial genetic contact between either Northern or Southern Talysh and neighboring groups, we conclude that internal change, rather than contact-induced change, most likely explains the linguistic differentiation between Northern and Southern Talysh. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Genetic Evidence for Complexity in Ethnic Differentiation and History in East Africa

ANNALS OF HUMAN GENETICS, Issue 6 2009
Estella S. Poloni
Summary The Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan language families come into contact in Western Ethiopia. Ethnic diversity is particularly high in the South, where the Nilo-Saharan Nyangatom and the Afro-Asiatic Daasanach dwell. Despite their linguistic differentiation, both populations rely on a similar agripastoralist mode of subsistence. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA extracted from Nyangatom and Daasanach archival sera revealed high levels of diversity, with most sequences belonging to the L haplogroups, the basal branches of the mitochondrial phylogeny. However, in sharp contrast with other Ethiopian populations, only 5% of the Nyangatom and Daasanach sequences belong to haplogroups M and N. The Nyangatom and Daasanach were found to be significantly differentiated, while each of them displays close affinities with some Tanzanian populations. The strong genetic structure found over East Africa was neither associated with geography nor with language, a result confirmed by the analysis of 6711 HVS-I sequences of 136 populations mainly from Africa. Processes of migration, language shift and group absorption are documented by linguists and ethnographers for the Nyangatom and Daasanach, thus pointing to the probably transient and plastic nature of these ethnic groups. These processes, associated with periods of isolation, could explain the high diversity and strong genetic structure found in East Africa. [source]