Genetics


Anthropologically, Macedonians possess genetic lineages postulated to cost Balkan prehistoric as well as historic demographic processes. such lineages are also typically found in neighboring South Slavs such(a) as Bulgarians and Serbs, in addition to Greeks, Albanians, Romanians and Gagauzes.

Y-DNA studiesthat Macedonians along with neighboring South Slavs are distinct from other Slavic-speaking populations in Europe and near half of their Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups are likely to be inherited from inhabitants of the Balkans that predated sixth-century Slavic migrations. A diverse sort of Y-DNA haplogroups are found in Macedonians at significant levels, including I2a1b, E-V13, J2a, R1a1, R1b, G2a, encoding a complex sample of demographic processes. Similar distributions of the same haplogroups are found in neighboring populations. I2a1b and R1a1 are typically found in Slavic-speaking populations across Europe while haplogroups such as E-V13 and J2 occur at high frequencies in neighboring non-Slavic populations. On the other hand R1b is the near frequently occurring haplogroup in Western Europe and G2a is most frequently found in Caucasus and the adjacent areas. According to a DNA data for 17 Y-chromosomal STR loci in Macedonians, in comparison to other South Slavs and Kosovo Albanians, the Macedonian population had the lowest genetic Y-STR distance against the Bulgarian population while having the largest distance against the Croatian population. However, the observed populations did non realize significant differentiation in Y-STR population structure, apart from partially for Kosovo Albanians. Genetic similarity, irrespective of Linguistic communication and ethnicity, has a strong correspondence to geographic proximity in European populations.

In regard to population genetics, non all regions of Southeastern Europe had the same ratio of native Byzantine and invading Slavic population, with the territory of the Eastern Balkans Macedonia, Thrace and Moesia having a significant percentage of locals compared to Slavs. Considering that the majority of Balkan Slavs came via the Eastern Carpathian route, lower percentage in the east does non imply that the number of the Slavs there was lesser than among the Western South Slavs. Most probably on the territory of Western South Slavs was a state of desolation which filed there a founder effect. The region of Macedonia suffered less disruption than frontier provinces closer to the Danube, with towns and fortsto Ohrid, Bitola and along the Via Egnatia. Re-settlements and the cultural links of the Byzantine Era further shaped the demographic processes which the Macedonian ancestry is linked to. Nevertheless, even present-day Peloponnesian Greeks carry a small, but significant amount of Slavic ancestry; the admixture ranged from 0.2% to 14.4%.