Dear Benjamin,
Indeed! My criticism was not so much referring to the study itself - which,
as others have also pointed out in the meantime, is a refinement of
research that has been going on for some time and whose general direction
is accepted by the very large majority of scholars. But Howard asked 'Is
this study as final and definitive as the article claims?', and so I
offered my views on why articles of this kind, from magazines that
ultimately are advertisements for their respective institutions, should be
enjoyed with caution.
I am *not* saying there is anything wrong with the research itself (I've
looked at it in the meantime, but I am not a geneticist, so there is a lot
here I cannot comment on), just that I'm usually hesitant when a
non-scholarly outlet claims that questions have been 'solved'.
All my best,
Antonia
On Fri, 7 Feb 2025 at 13:49, Benjamin Fleming <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Dear Antonia,
> I would just note that the study itself does not discuss "when Europeans
> noticed that Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek were related". That is coming only
> from the alumni magazine article.
> Best wishes,
> Ben
>
> On Thu, Feb 6, 2025 at 3:04 PM Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> My take as someone who has not read the original study: I am cautious
>> about this for several reasons.
>>
>> -- A person's genes do not tell you what language they're speaking.
>> -- University alumni magazines love to talk up research from their
>> institutions and make its results sound much more 'decisive' than they are.
>> -- That they get wrong simple things like when Europeans noticed that
>> Sanskrit, Latin and Greek were related by well over a century does not
>> inspire confidence. (But hey, scientists don't need to read early 17th-c
>> sources in Latin, right:-)?)
>>
>> That said, if further study of the Nature article corroborated these
>> findings, I'd be more than delighted. I'm definitely going to take a look.
>>
>> --Antonia
>>
>> On Thu, 6 Feb 2025 at 15:22, Howard Resnick via INDOLOGY <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Scholars,
>>>
>>> Is this study as final and definitive as the article claims? Thanks!
>>>
>>> Howard
>>>
>>> [image: 020425_Yamnaya_016.jpeg]
>>>
>>> Landmark studies track source of Indo-European languages— Harvard Gazette
>>> <https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/02/landmark-studies-track-source-of-indo-european-languages-spoken-by-40-of-world/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Gazette%2020250206%20(1)&spMailingID=35820945&spUserID=MjM4ODIxNjk1NDQyS0&spJobID=2843202028&spReportId=Mjg0MzIwMjAyOAS2>
>>> news.harvard.edu
>>> <https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/02/landmark-studies-track-source-of-indo-european-languages-spoken-by-40-of-world/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Gazette%2020250206%20(1)&spMailingID=35820945&spUserID=MjM4ODIxNjk1NDQyS0&spJobID=2843202028&spReportId=Mjg0MzIwMjAyOAS2>
>>>
>>> <https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/02/landmark-studies-track-source-of-indo-european-languages-spoken-by-40-of-world/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Gazette%2020250206%20(1)&spMailingID=35820945&spUserID=MjM4ODIxNjk1NDQyS0&spJobID=2843202028&spReportId=Mjg0MzIwMjAyOAS2>
>>>
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