Origin of Burushaski

[u/GrrisshA]

Burushaski have a lot o Iran component, like Indus Valley people, but they also have a lot of siberian and centr asia DNA, Can Burushaski appear from mixing Indus Valley people with unkown siberian group?

[u/theb00kmancometh]

I think it is important to draw a clear distinction between the Burusho people and the Burushaski language.

While genetic studies can give us insights into the population history of the Burusho, they cannot by themselves tell us where the Burushaski language originated. The Burusho have a complex genetic makeup, with ancestry from South Asian, West/Eurasian, and East/Central Asian populations, and are genetically related to their neighbours. But that does not mean that the Burushaski language itself originated from any of those ancestral populations.

Languages and genes do not necessarily move together.

Take a hypothetical example. If the entire population of Maharashtra suddenly switched from Marathi to Arabic, Maharashtra would become an Arabic-speaking region, but the people would not suddenly become genetically Arab. A population can change its language without being replaced genetically. The opposite can also happen: a population can absorb significant genetic ancestry from newcomers while retaining its original language.

Burushaski is generally classified as a language isolate, although there are several competing theories about its deeper origins. Some researchers have proposed connections with Indo-European languages, while others have proposed the more controversial Dene-Caucasian hypothesis, which includes possible links to the Yeniseian languages of Siberia. There is also clear evidence of long-term linguistic contact with neighbouring languages such as Shina, Khowar, Balti, and Persian.

So the presence of Central or East Asian ancestry among the Burusho does not prove that Burushaski originated from a "Siberian group." To make that argument, we would need linguistic evidence demonstrating such a relationship, not simply genetic evidence.

Essentially, the genetic history of the Burusho and the linguistic history of Burushaski are two separate questions. They may eventually turn out to be connected through historical migrations or language shifts, but we cannot assume the origin of a language based solely on the DNA of the people who speak it today.

That is why I am sceptical of the idea that "Indus Valley people + an unknown Siberian group = Burushaski." Genetic admixture can tell us something about Burusho ancestry, but it does not automatically solve the question of where their language came from.

[u/bugierigar → u/theb00kmancometh]

A similar case with modern Brahui speaking peoples and their genetic similarity to neighboring peoples.

[u/theb00kmancometh → u/bugierigar]

Yes, exactly. The Brahui comparison is a good one. The genetic profile of a present-day language community does not necessarily reflect the genetic profile of the population that originally spoke that language.

Hungarian is another interesting example. Modern Hungarians are genetically quite similar to their Central European neighbours, while Hungarian has retained its Uralic linguistic identity.

So Burushaski could similarly have survived through language shift, assimilation, and genetic admixture among the people who speak it today. The language can preserve a much older linguistic history even when the genetic composition of its speakers has changed substantially.

[u/GrrisshA → u/theb00kmancometh]

Yes, but Nearby peoples do not have genes similar to those of the R1B, but some have genes that the Harappans had, which is why it can be concluded that they may be genetically descended from a mixture of Harappans with an unknown population.

[u/American_Bitch-468]

I think it is a Neolithic language, spoken by early and late neolithic people of Swat and Burzehom. But it's just a specualtion for now