The Gagauz, a linguistic enclave, are not a genetic isolate.
The Gagauz are a Turkic-speaking group that migrated from Turkey to their present location in the southern part of the Republic of Moldova about 150 years ago. Surrounded by Indo-European-speaking populations, they thus form a linguistic enclave, which raises the following question: to what extent have they remained in genetic isolation from their geographic neighbours? Analyses of mtDNA and Y chromosome variation indicate that despite their linguistic differences, the Gagauz have admixed extensively with neighbouring groups. Our data suggest that there has been more mtDNA than Y chromosome admixture, in keeping with the patrilocal nature of these groups. Moreover, when compared with another linguistic enclave, the Kalmyks there appears to be a correlation between the amount of genetic admixture and the amount of linguistic influence that these two linguistic enclaves have experienced from neighbouring groups.
Nasidze
Ivan
I
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany. nasidze@eva.mpg.de
Quinque
Dominique
D
Udina
Irina
I
Kunizheva
Svetlana
S
Stoneking
Mark
M
D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y / Q000235:genetics; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008966:Moldova; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D014421:Turkey / Q000208:ethnology
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial