J Syst Evol ›› 2013, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (3): 271-279.DOI: 10.1111/jse.12003

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Genetic evidence for the multiple origins of Pinghua Chinese

1Yan LU# 2Shang-Ling PAN# 2Shu-Ming QIN 1Zheng-Dong QIN 1Chuan-Chao WANG 2Rui-Jing GAN 1Hui LI* the Genographic Consortium**   

  1. 1(State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering and MOE Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China)
    2(Department of Pathophysiology and Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, China)
  • Received:2012-10-12 Published:2013-05-21

Abstract: Linguistics and genetics always reach similar results in phylogenetic studies of human populations. A previous study found that populations speaking Han Chinese dialects have closer genetic relationships to each other than to neighboring ethnic groups. However, the Pinghua Chinese population from Guangxi is an exception. We have reported that northern Pinghua people are genetically related to populations speaking Daic languages. In this study, we further studied the southern Pinghua population. The Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA haplogroup components and network analysis indicated that northern and southern Pinghua populations were genetically different. Therefore, we concluded that the Pinghua speakers may have various origins, even though Pinghua dialects are similar. Pinghua dialects might have originated when the Daic or Hmongic speakers from different regions learnt to speak the same Chinese dialect hundreds of years ago. Speakers of one language do not always have just one origin.

Key words: mitochondrial DNA, multiple origins, Pinghua Chinese, Y chromosome.