The surname structure of Trentino (Italy) and its relationship with dialects and genes (Annals of Human Biology 2021) (original) (raw)
Related papers
American Journal of Human Biology, 1999
The internal mobility of the population of the province of Lecco (Lombardy, Italy) was evaluated on the basis of the frequency of characteristic surnames in three territorial areas as a function of their geographical distance. Nearly three-quarters of the patterns are statistically significant in one of the three areas, where the process of diffusion of surnames could be interpreted as due to socioeconomic factors. On the contrary, a similar distribution is less evident in the other two areas of the same territory.
The present paper seeks to analyse the spatial distribution of surnames in the province of Belluno in the Italian Alps, and describes the internal mobility of the population taking into consideration one of the most important and ancient roads in the area. The study is based on the analysis of the similarity of the frequencies of some autochthonous surnames depending on their geographical distance apart. The population considered turned out to be basically sedentary. When forced to migrate, the population preferred to go far from their homeland rather than inside the area: this happened probably because the opportunities that the province of Belluno could offer were quite scarce throughout the whole territory, and people hoped to improve their economic situation by going abroad.
The Border Effect in Surname Structure: An Italian-Slovenian Case Study, Human Biology, 2011
Human Biology, 2011
Population surname structure in northeastern Italy municipalities, in which small Slovenian-speaking groups are present, are compared with neighboring populations of both Italian and Slovenian nationality. In the early 20th century those municipalities were part of the Italian territory and underwent a massive Italianization process that led to the mutation of the original Slovenian surnames into a derived Italian form. In order to track surname relationships among the examined communities, two different similarity analyses were performed: the first using the surnames as they are recorded in the Italian and Slovenian official telephone directories, and the second restoring the Italianized Slovenian surnames to their original form and then recalculating the populations' similarity. Both comparisons evidence a separation that depends on nationality, which is less marked after restoring surnames to their original form. Geographical elements, older historical events, and socioeconomic traits allow interpretation of these results.
European Journal of Human Genetics, 2015
The relationship between genetic and linguistic diversification in human populations has been often explored to interpret some specific issues in human history. The Albanian-speaking minorities of Sicily and Southern Italy (Arbereshe) constitute an important portion of the ethnolinguistic variability of Italy. Their linguistic isolation from neighboring Italian populations and their documented migration history, make such minorities particularly effective for investigating the interplay between cultural, geographic and historical factors. Nevertheless, the extent of Arbereshe genetic relationships with the Balkan homeland and the Italian recipient populations has been only partially investigated. In the present study we address the genetic history of Arbereshe people by combining highly resolved analyses of Y-chromosome lineages and extensive computer simulations. A large set of slow-and fast-evolving molecular markers was typed in different Arbereshe communities from Sicily and Southern Italy (Calabria), as well as in both the putative Balkan source and Italian sink populations. Our results revealed that the considered Arbereshe groups, despite speaking closely related languages and sharing common cultural features, actually experienced diverging genetic histories. The estimated proportions of genetic admixture confirm the tight relationship of Calabrian Arbereshe with modern Albanian populations, in accordance with linguistic hypotheses. On the other hand, population stratification and/or an increased permeability of linguistic and geographic barriers may be hypothesized for Sicilian groups, to account for their partial similarity with Greek populations and their higher levels of local admixture. These processes ultimately resulted in the differential acquisition or preservation of specific paternal lineages by the present-day Arbereshe communities.
Surnames as Alleles: Spatial Distribution of Surnames in a Province of the Italian Alps
Journal of Biosocial Science, 2006
Summary.The present paper seeks to analyse the spatial distribution of surnames in the province of Belluno in the Italian Alps, and describes the internal mobility of the population taking into consideration one of the most important and ancient roads in the area. The study is based on the analysis of the similarity of the frequencies of some autochthonous surnames depending on their geographical distance apart. The population considered turned out to be basically sedentary. When forced to migrate, the population preferred to go far from their homeland rather than inside the area: this happened probably because the opportunities that the province of Belluno could offer were quite scarce throughout the whole territory, and people hoped to improve their economic situation by going abroad.
Linguistic, geographic and genetic isolation: a collaborative study of Italian populations
The animal and plant biodiversity of the Italian territory is known to be one of the richest in the Mediterranean basin and Europe as a whole, but does the genetic diversity of extant human populations show a comparable pattern? According to a number of studies, the genetic structure of Italian populations retains the signatures of complex peopling processes which took place from the Paleolithic to modern era. Although the observed patterns highlight a remarkable degree of genetic heterogeneity, they do not, however, take into account an important source of variation. In fact, Italy is home to numerous ethnolinguistic minorities which have yet to be studied systematically. Due to their difference in geographical origin and demographic history, such groups not only signal the cultural and social diversity of our country, but they are also potential contributors to its bio-anthropological heterogeneity. To fill this gap, research groups from four Italian Universities (Bologna, Cagliari, Pisa and Roma Sapienza) started a collaborative study in 2007, which was funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research and received partial support by the Istituto Italiano di Antropologia. In this paper, we present an account of the results obtained in the course of this initiative. Four case-studies relative to linguistic minorities from the Eastern Alps, Sardinia, Apennines and Southern Italy are first described and discussed, focusing on their micro-evolutionary and anthropological implications. Thereafter, we present the results of a systematic analysis of the relations between linguistic, geographic and genetic isolation. Integrating the data obtained in the course of the long-term study with literature and unpublished results on Italian populations, we show that a combination of linguistic and geographic factors is probably responsible for the presence of the most robust signatures of genetic isolation. Finally, we evaluate the magnitude of the diversity of Italian populations in the European context. The human genetic diversity of our country was found to be greater than observed throughout the continent at short (0-200 km) and intermediate (700-800km) distances, and accounted for most of the highest values of genetic distances observed at all geographic ranges. Interestingly, an important contribution to this pattern comes from the "linguistic islands" (e.g. German speaking groups of Sappada and Luserna from the Eastern Italian Alps), further proof of the importance of considering social and cultural factors when studying human genetic variation.
Journal of Human Genetics, 2012
Although essential for the fine-scale reconstruction of genetic structure, only a few micro-geographic studies have been carried out in European populations. This study analyzes mitochondrial variation (651 bp of the hypervariable region plus 17 singlenucleotide polymorphisms) in 393 samples from nine populations from Trentino (Eastern Italian Alps), a small area characterized by a complex geography and high linguistic diversity. A high level of genetic variation, comparable to geographically dispersed European groups, was observed. We found a difference in the intensity of peopling processes between two longitudinal areas, as populations from the west-central part of the region show stronger signatures of expansion, whereas those from the eastern area are closer to the expectations of a stationary demographic state. This may be explained by geomorphological factors and is also supported by archeological data. Finally, our results reveal a striking difference in the way in which the two linguistically isolated populations are genetically related to the neighboring groups. The Ladin speakers were found to be genetically close to the Italian-speaking populations and differentiated from the other Dolomitic Ladins, whereas the German-speaking Cimbri behave as an outlier, showing signatures of founder effects and low growth rate.
The surnames of populations of the municipalities with Cimbro and Mòcheno origins are compared with each other and with other municipalities of the neighbourhood. This study starts from the supposition that a community of surnames shares a common cultural origin, maintained by reciprocal mobility. The analysis has been carried out by using estimates of the similarities between populations, the topological representations obtained by them and the spatial autocorrelation. On the whole, this research shows no evidence of peculiar distinctions between the populations that share Cimbro and Mòcheno origins compared to the neighbouring ones. Moreover, there is not any evident process of undifferentiated diffusion along all the directions. On the contrary, it is emphasized that belonging to the same geographic collocation and to the same administrative subdivision mostly influences the similarity between populations. The exception is the Cimbro municipality of Luserna, which presents a peculiar structure of surnames different from other municipalities of the same territory.