"language traits" is correct and usable in written English
You can use it to describe patterns or characteristics of a language typically shared by its native speakers. For example, "The French language has some unique language traits, such as silent letters and the use of accent marks on some words."
This had given rise to the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area (a linguistic area being one where a set of language traits have become common among the area's languages by diffusion and not by evolution within a set of languages belonging to a common genetic subgrouping).
Instead, no associations were detected with language traits in the entire ALSPAC cohort, which is representative of the general population.
In this light, it is tempting to speculate that ASD genes have been important for the development of human-specific communication and/or language traits.
Each of these SNPs then showed evidence for effects across multiple reading and language traits in univariate association testing against the individual traits.
It is interesting that a single PC can capture comparable variation across a diverse range of reading and language traits and in the presence of heterogeneity of measurement across datasets.
Both linkages have been replicated in additional samples, though the specific language traits linked to chromosome 19 are not consistent from study to study (Falcaro et al. 2008; SLI Consortium 2004).
As expected, the left-hand set of genes (1 5) show differences between genotypes for the language trait, and the right-hand set (6 10) as well as the pleiotropic gene (1) show differences between genotypes for the ASD trait.
Overall, the t-test comparisons show that if we simply compare mean values of language trait scores for different genotypes for genes 6 10, which interact with gene 1, we are unlikely to detect an effect of an ASD gene on a language phenotype, with gene 8 being the only one to show a significant (though very small) effect.
The G × G interaction reduces the correlation between probands and first degree relatives, and so can accommodate the result observed by Lindgren et al. (2009) whereby relatives of those with comorbid ASD+LI were less impaired on the language trait than relatives of pure LI cases, even though the comorbid probands themselves were at least as impaired as SLI cases on language measures.
The relatives of comorbid cases still show more language impairment than relatives of unaffected individuals; however, the relatively small increase in rates of LI over population prevalence, and more modest deficit on the language trait would only be detectable with a large sample.
The model runs into difficulties, however, in accounting for patterns of trait markers in relatives, because, like the CAR model, it predicts that the different dimensions should 'breed true', so relatives of those with comorbid autism+LI should resemble relatives of those with SLI on language trait markers, with both being impaired.
