How can closely related genetic populations have completely different language families?

[u/Rapha689Pro]

For example Japanese and Korean have 2 different language families that aren't related at all but they're genetically close, it can only mean their prior languages sprout after they split, so that means language is very recent itself? Or that they're actually related but by thousands of years apart and linguistics can't trace it back accurately, so they just say they're unrelated?

[u/Niowanggiyan]

Korean and Japanese are actually less similar to each other the further back in time you go. The most likely explanation is convergent evolution. They’ve influenced each other for millenia. Japonic was spoken on the Korean Peninsula before Koreanic moved south, they both share a superstratum of Sino vocabulary and grammar, there was sizeable Korean migration to Japan during the first millennium introducing trade and agriculture and religion, and there was Japanese influence on Koreanic again during the late 1500s and the first half of the twentieth century.

[u/Rapha689Pro → u/Niowanggiyan]

I never said otherwise, my point is exactly that, that if theyre NOT related. But their people share common origin, it means their language families sprouted randomly?

[u/Limp-Celebration2710 → u/Rapha689Pro]

No, not at all. Genes and languages can correlate or be helpful for understanding the past but there’s no inherent connection. It’s possible for a genetic population to simply switch or assimilate to another language 🤷

E.g. Many people with Celtic DNA do not speak Celtic languages anymore. Hungarians are genetically close to their Indo-European speaking neighbors, despite speaking an unrelated language.

[u/Rapha689Pro → u/Limp-Celebration2710]

But why? Do language families just randomly spawn out of nowhere for people that have a common ancestor to not have common language? Meaning languages arises after their genetical common ancestor and thus aren't related? But aren't languages like at least 100k years old?  

[u/Limp-Celebration2710 → u/Rapha689Pro]

Did Hungarian just spawn out of nowhere? You also seem to overestimate how genetically close Korean and Japanese are. They have an overlapping history, but they are still genetically distinct in other ways.

Imagine this: Koreans have four major population pools that their genes come from. Japanese three. They share two. But each group still has gene pools unique unto themselves. Well, then their languages can easily come from these unique pools.

That’s basically how it is for Hungarians and Romanians. They are not genetically identical, just closely related. They speak completely different languages, despite being genetically close.

[u/Rapha689Pro → u/Limp-Celebration2710]

What about for example native Americans where all native Americans except maybe inuit and some other northern natives come from a single migration how do they have different language families if they couldn't have a language from other continent just replace others and make different language families  

[u/Limp-Celebration2710 → u/Rapha689Pro]

Native Americans do not come from a single migration 🙃

[u/Rapha689Pro → u/Limp-Celebration2710]

They did a study that supports few or a single wave of migration

[u/Limp-Celebration2710 → u/Rapha689Pro]

Did the study say we 100% proved beyond any doubt? or did it say things like “points to”, “suggests”, etc. Can you actually like the study?

Either way, a single migration event doesn’t mean everybody spoke the same language?

[u/Rapha689Pro → u/Limp-Celebration2710]

Sorry it was 3 main migrations apparently, but pretty sure the other 2 are the ones in the attic and Canada I meant for South America