发表在《当然》期刊上的一项新探讨发觉，包括日语、汉语、土耳其语和蒙古语在内的泛欧亚语系起由于9000年前在华夏东北种植谷子的农民。探讨人士指明，农业的进行推进了言语的流传。

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.

一项概括了言语学、基因学和考古学证据的探讨发觉，现代日语、韩语、土耳其语和蒙古语等统一语系的言语以及说这点言语的人，都起由于大约 9000 年前在华夏东北地域种植粟的古代农民。

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.

该探讨结果具体纪录了在绵延8000多千米的地域内数亿人一同的基因传承，它们运用的言语被探讨人士称为“泛欧亚语系”。该探讨结果于上周三（11月10日）发表。

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.

这点发觉阐述了冰川时期后人类从事农业运动对全球上少许最重要的语系流传发生的推进效用。谷子（粟）是早期狩猎采集者调转方向农业生活形式时的一个要紧作物。

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.

泛欧亚语系总大家都有98种言语，包括韩语、日语、各样突厥语系（包括在欧洲、安纳托利亚、中亚和西伯利亚部分地域运用的土耳其语）、亚洲中部和东北部运用的各样蒙古语系以及在华夏东北和西伯利亚运用的各样通古斯语系。

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.

泛欧亚语系的源头可行追溯到新石器时期位至今华夏辽宁、吉林和内蒙三地的辽河流域种植谷子的农民。随着这点农民迁转到东北亚，其后代言语在数千年的时间里，就随之向北和西流传到了西伯利亚和大草原，也向东流传到朝鲜半岛并跨过海洋到达日本群岛。

steppe [step]: n. 大草原，干草原（特指西伯利亚一带无树木的大草原）

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

这项探讨重申了现代人数和文化的繁杂起源。

"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.

该探讨的最重要的作者、相比言语学家马丁·罗贝茨坦言：“承认本人的言语、文化的根源或祖先来源境外，是一个身份的屈服，这让有些人接纳不了。” 罗贝茨也是德国马克斯·普朗克人类历史科学探讨所考古言语学探讨小组的负责人。这项探讨发表在《当然》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.

罗贝茨还显示：“日本、韩国和华夏这样的强国平常被以为代表着一个言语、一个文化和一个基因。可是让有民族主义动机的人感觉不快的真相是，全部的言语、文化和人种，包括亚洲在内，皆是混合进行而成的。”

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.

探讨人士为此98种言语设置了一种词汇概念数据集，从中辩别出了一组与农业相干的焦点传承词汇，并绘制了一棵言语谱系树。

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.

该探讨的合著者之一、来源马克斯·普朗克人类历史科学探讨所的考古学家马克·哈德逊显示，探讨人士探讨了来源华夏、日本、朝鲜半岛和俄罗斯远东地域的255个考古遗址的数据，从陶器、石制用具等人力制品和植物、动物遗迹中总结出类似性。它们还把各个遗址挖掘的269种古代农作物的生产年代也联合起来剖析。

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.

探讨结果指明，华夏东北的农民后来最初种植水稻和小麦，作为对谷子的补充。当这点族群在公元前1300年左右来到朝鲜半岛，并在公元前1000年左右从那边迁到日本时，这点农作物也随之获得流传。

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.

探讨人士对23具远古人类遗骸发展了基因组剖析，并将其与9500年来生活在北亚和东亚的人类现存基因数据发展比照。

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.

例如来讲，在韩国济州岛挖掘的一具女性遗骸的基因组与日本古绳文人有95%的类似性，这表达她的祖先从日本漂洋过海迁移而来。

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.

现代汉语具有独立的起源，可是也与谷子种植相关。罗贝茨指明，泛欧亚语系的祖先在辽河流域种植黍时，汉藏语系的始祖大约统一时代也在华夏黄河流域种植粟，为现代汉语的流传奠定了根基。

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

英文来自：路透社

翻译&编辑：丹妮