Read the following sentence from an academic study on European population genetics and historical linguistics:
"Although late twentieth-century historical linguists originally hypothesized that the structural isolation of the Basque language resulted from continuous geographic isolation in the Western Pyrenees since the Upper Paleolithic era, recent comparative genomic analyses of modern Basque populations reveal genetic signatures of significant Bronze Age steppe admixture, demonstrating that Basque speakers were not genetically isolated from neighboring Indo-European groups during the initial spread of agriculture across Western Europe."
Based on the sentence provided, which of the following statements about Basque speakers is most strongly supported?
- The structural isolation of the Basque language does not conclusively establish that Basque-speaking populations remained genetically distinct from nearby populations throughout history.Answer
- BThe linguistic features of Basque were heavily modified by extensive vocabulary borrowing from Indo-European dialects during the Bronze Age.
- CLate twentieth-century linguists correctly deduced that geographic barriers prevented all contact between Basque speakers and neighboring populations after the Upper Paleolithic era.
- DComparative genomic evidence has completely discredited all previous hypotheses proposed by twentieth-century historical linguists regarding European language origins.
- EBasque speakers introduced agricultural techniques to neighboring Indo-European groups as they expanded across Western Europe.