Home Linguistics & Semiotics Combining population genetics (DNA) with historical linguistics
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Combining population genetics (DNA) with historical linguistics

On the African origins of Latin America’s black and mulatto populations
  • Armin Schwegler
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
Search
Spanish Language and Sociolinguistic Analysis
This chapter is in the book Spanish Language and Sociolinguistic Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the African provenience of some of Latin America’s Black inhabitants and to demonstrate how recent advances in research have made it possible to determine their ancestors’ origin with a high degree of specificity. To that end, the ancestry of two specific (and admittedly unusual) communities will be examined from a linguistic perspective: (1) the maroon village of Palenque (Colombia), and (2) ritual “families” of Palo Monte (Cuba). Part 2 of this chapter then sets these findings in dialogue with the latest investigations regarding the population genetics (DNA) of Palenque and over 40 sub-Saharan ethnolinguistic communities. The combined results of this interdisciplinary DNA and linguistic research point to a monogenetic hypothesis that places Bakongo slaves from a small region (Mayombe, also known as Yombe) in Western Central Africa at the center of Palenque’s and Palo Monte’s foundational story.

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the African provenience of some of Latin America’s Black inhabitants and to demonstrate how recent advances in research have made it possible to determine their ancestors’ origin with a high degree of specificity. To that end, the ancestry of two specific (and admittedly unusual) communities will be examined from a linguistic perspective: (1) the maroon village of Palenque (Colombia), and (2) ritual “families” of Palo Monte (Cuba). Part 2 of this chapter then sets these findings in dialogue with the latest investigations regarding the population genetics (DNA) of Palenque and over 40 sub-Saharan ethnolinguistic communities. The combined results of this interdisciplinary DNA and linguistic research point to a monogenetic hypothesis that places Bakongo slaves from a small region (Mayombe, also known as Yombe) in Western Central Africa at the center of Palenque’s and Palo Monte’s foundational story.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction xi
  5. Part I. Cutting-edge Methodologies in Sociolinguistics
  6. Quantitative analysis in language variation and change 3
  7. Combining population genetics (DNA) with historical linguistics 33
  8. Part II. Bilingualism
  9. Los Angeles Vernacular Spanish 91
  10. On the tenacity of Andean Spanish 109
  11. Spanish and Valencian in contact 135
  12. Part III. Language Acquisition
  13. Children’s Spanish subject pronoun expression 157
  14. The role of social networks in the acquisition of a dialectal features during study abroad 177
  15. Lexical frequency and subject expression in native and non-native Spanish 197
  16. Part IV. Phonological Variation
  17. On glottal stops in Yucatan Spanish 219
  18. Vowel raising and social networks in Michoacán 241
  19. Bilingualism and aspiration 261
  20. Part V. Morpho-Syntactic Variation
  21. Spanish and Portuguese parallels 285
  22. The tuteo of Rocha, Uruguay 305
  23. A corpus-based sociolinguistic study of contact-induced changes in subject placement in the Spanish of New York City bilinguals 323
  24. Part VI. Lexical Variation
  25. Social factors in semantic change 345
  26. Attitudes towards lexical Arabisms in sixteenth-century Spanish texts 363
  27. “Trabajar es en español, en ladino es lavorar” 381
  28. Index 401
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.8.02sch

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction xi
  5. Part I. Cutting-edge Methodologies in Sociolinguistics
  6. Quantitative analysis in language variation and change 3
  7. Combining population genetics (DNA) with historical linguistics 33
  8. Part II. Bilingualism
  9. Los Angeles Vernacular Spanish 91
  10. On the tenacity of Andean Spanish 109
  11. Spanish and Valencian in contact 135
  12. Part III. Language Acquisition
  13. Children’s Spanish subject pronoun expression 157
  14. The role of social networks in the acquisition of a dialectal features during study abroad 177
  15. Lexical frequency and subject expression in native and non-native Spanish 197
  16. Part IV. Phonological Variation
  17. On glottal stops in Yucatan Spanish 219
  18. Vowel raising and social networks in Michoacán 241
  19. Bilingualism and aspiration 261
  20. Part V. Morpho-Syntactic Variation
  21. Spanish and Portuguese parallels 285
  22. The tuteo of Rocha, Uruguay 305
  23. A corpus-based sociolinguistic study of contact-induced changes in subject placement in the Spanish of New York City bilinguals 323
  24. Part VI. Lexical Variation
  25. Social factors in semantic change 345
  26. Attitudes towards lexical Arabisms in sixteenth-century Spanish texts 363
  27. “Trabajar es en español, en ladino es lavorar” 381
  28. Index 401
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 14.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/ihll.8.02sch/html
Scroll to top button