Genes influence language The language we speak is dependent on
our ancestry. But our genes are also responsible for our
language. Scottish researchers have come to this conclusion.
They examined how English differs from Chinese. In doing so they
discovered that genes play a role, too. Because genes influence
the development of our brain. That is to say, they shape our
brain structures. With this, our ability to learn languages is
determined. Variants of two genes are crucial to this. If a
particular variant is scarce, tonal languages develop. So tonal
languages are spoken by people without these gene variants. In
tonal languages, the meaning of words is determined by the pitch
of the tones. Chinese is included in the tonal languages, for
example. If this gene variant is dominant, however, other
languages develop. English is not a tonal language. The variants
of this gene are not evenly distributed. That means they occur
with differing frequency in the world. But languages only
survive if they are passed down.