發表在《自然》期刊上的一項新研究發現，包括日語、漢語、土耳其語和蒙古語在內的泛歐亞語系起源于9000年前在中國東北種植谷子的農民。研究人員指出，農業的發展推動了語言的傳播。

A study combining linguistic, genetic and archaeological evidence has traced the origins of the family of languages including modern Japanese, Korean, Turkish and Mongolian and the people who speak them to millet farmers who inhabited a region in northeastern China about 9,000 years ago.

一項綜合了語言學、基因學和考古學證據的研究發現，現代日語、韓語、土耳其語和蒙古語等同一語系的語言以及說這些語言的人，都起源于大約 9000 年前在中國東北地區種植粟的古代農民。

The findings detailed on Wednesday document a shared genetic ancestry for the hundreds of millions of people who speak what the researchers call Transeurasian languages across an area stretching more than 8,000 km.

該研究結果詳細記錄了在綿延8000多公里的區域內數億人共同的基因傳承，他們使用的語言被研究人員稱為“泛歐亞語系”。該研究結果于上周三（11月10日）發表。

The findings illustrate how humankind's embrace of agriculture following the Ice Age powered the dispersal of some of the world's major language families. Millet was an important early crop as hunter-gatherers transitioned to an agricultural lifestyle.

這些發現闡述了冰川時代后人類從事農業活動對世界上一些主要語系傳播產生的推動作用。谷子（粟）是早期狩獵采集者轉向農業生活方式時的一種重要作物。

There are 98 Transeurasian languages. Among these are Korean and Japanese as well as: various Turkic languages including Turkish in parts of Europe, Anatolia, Central Asia and Siberia; various Mongolic languages including Mongolian in Central and Northeast Asia; and various Tungusic languages in northeastern China and Siberia.

泛歐亞語系總共有98種語言，包括韓語、日語、各類突厥語系（包括在歐洲、安納托利亞、中亞和西伯利亞部分地區使用的土耳其語）、亞洲中部和東北部使用的各類蒙古語系以及在中國東北和西伯利亞使用的各類通古斯語系。

This language family's beginnings were traced to Neolithic millet farmers in the Liao River valley, an area encompassing parts of the Chinese provinces of Liaoning and Jilin and the region of Inner Mongolia. As these farmers moved across northeastern Asia, the descendant languages spread north and west into Siberia and the steppes and east into the Korean peninsula and over the sea to the Japanese archipelago over thousands of years.

泛歐亞語系的源頭可以追溯到新石器時代位于今中國遼寧、吉林和內蒙三地的遼河流域種植谷子的農民。隨著這些農民遷移到東北亞，其后代語言在數千年的時間里，就隨之向北和西傳播到了西伯利亞和大草原，也向東傳播到朝鮮半島并跨過海洋到達日本群島。

steppe [step]: n. 大草原，干草原（特指西伯利亞一帶沒有樹木的大草原）

The research underscored the complex beginnings for modern populations and cultures.

這項研究強調了現代人口和文化的復雜起源。

"Accepting that the roots of one's language, culture or people lie beyond the present national boundaries is a kind of surrender of identity, which some people are not yet prepared to make," said comparative linguist Martine Robbeets, leader of the Archaeolinguistic Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

該研究的主要作者、比較語言學家馬丁·羅貝茨坦言：“承認自己的語言、文化的根源或祖先來自境外，是一種身份的屈服，這讓有些人接受不了。” 羅貝茨也是德國馬克斯·普朗克人類歷史科學研究所考古語言學研究小組的負責人。這項研究發表在《自然》期刊上。

"Powerful nations such as Japan, Korea and China are often pictured as representing one language, one culture and one genetic profile. But a truth that makes people with nationalist agendas uncomfortable is that all languages, cultures and humans, including those in Asia, are mixed," Robbeets added.

羅貝茨還表示：“日本、韓國和中國這樣的強國通常被認為代表著一種語言、一種文化和一種基因。但是讓有民族主義動機的人感到不快的真相是，所有的語言、文化和人種，包括亞洲在內，都是混合發展而成的。”

The researchers devised a dataset of vocabulary concepts for the 98 languages, identified a core of inherited words related to agriculture and fashioned a language family tree.

研究人員為這98種語言設計了一個詞匯概念數據集，從中識別出了一組與農業相關的核心傳承詞匯，并繪制了一棵語言譜系樹。

Archaeologist and study co-author Mark Hudson of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History said the researchers examined data from 255 archaeological sites in China, Japan, the Korean peninsula and the Russia Far East, assessing similarities in artifacts including pottery, stone tools and plant and animal remains. They also factored in the dates of 269 ancient crop remains from various sites.

該研究的合著者之一、來自馬克斯·普朗克人類歷史科學研究所的考古學家馬克·哈德遜表示，研究人員研究了來自中國、日本、朝鮮半島和俄羅斯遠東地區的255個考古遺址的數據，從陶器、石制工具等人工制品和植物、動物遺跡中總結出相似性。他們還把各個遺址發掘的269種古代農作物的出產年代也結合起來分析。

The researchers determined that farmers in northeastern China eventually supplemented millet with rice and wheat, an agricultural package that was transmitted when these populations spread to the Korean peninsula by about 1300 BC and from there to Japan after about 1000 BC.

研究結果指出，中國東北的農民后來開始種植水稻和小麥，作為對谷子的補充。當這些族群在公元前1300年左右來到朝鮮半島，并在公元前1000年左右從那里遷到日本時，這些農作物也隨之得到傳播。

The researchers performed genomic analyses on ancient remains of 23 people and examined existing data on others who lived in North and East Asia as long as 9,500 years ago.

研究人員對23具遠古人類遺骸進行了基因組分析，并將其與9500年來生活在北亞和東亞的人類現有基因數據進行比照。

For example, a woman's remains found in Yokchido in South Korea had 95% ancestry from Japan's ancient Jomon people, indicating her recent ancestors had migrated over the sea.

舉例來說，在韓國濟州島發掘的一具女性遺骸的基因組與日本古繩文人有95%的相似性，這表明她的祖先從日本漂洋過海遷移而來。

The origins of modern Chinese languages arose independently, though in a similar fashion with millet also involved. While the progenitors of the Transeurasian languages grew broomcorn millet in the Liao River valley, the originators of the Sino-Tibetan language family farmed foxtail millet at roughly the same time in China's Yellow River region, paving the way for a separate language dispersal, Robbeets said.

現代漢語擁有獨立的起源，但是也與谷子種植有關。羅貝茨指出，泛歐亞語系的祖先在遼河流域種植黍時，漢藏語系的始祖大約同一時期也在中國黃河流域種植粟，為現代漢語的傳播奠定了基礎。

progenitor [pro??d?en?t?r]: n. 祖先；原著；起源

英文來源：路透社

翻譯&編輯：丹妮