Robert Blust

The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics

Phylogenetic methods have revolutionised evolutionary biology and have recently been applied to studies of linguistic and cultural evolution. However, the basic comparative data on the languages of the world required for these analyses is often widely dispersed in hard to obtain sources. Here we outline how our Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database (ABVD) helps remedy this situation by collating wordlists from over 500 languages into one web-accessible database. We describe the technology underlying the ABVD and discuss the benefits that an evolutionary bioinformatic approach can provide. These include facilitating computational comparative linguistic research, answering questions about human prehistory, enabling syntheses with genetic data, and safe-guarding fragile linguistic information.

The prehistory of the Austronesian-speaking peoples: A view from language

Prior to the European colonial expansions of the past several centuries the Austronesian (AN) language family had the greatest geographical extent of any on earth, including in its territory areas that had never previously been settled. Although predominantly distributed in a tropical or subtropical environment, AN-speaking peoples exhibit a wide range of physical types, material cultures, and types of social and political organization. This paper addresses ways in which linguistic comparison can contribute toward answering such questions as the following: Where was the AN homeland? What was the nature of early AN material culture, social and political organization? What can we infer about early AN pathology? How did early AN speakers view the spirit world? It concludes with a discussion of culture loss, many examples of which can be inferred both from the Pacific and from insular Southeast Asia.

CENTRAL AND CENTRAL- EASTERN MALAYO-POLYNESIAN

Malayo-Polynesian (CEMP). CEMP, encompassing all of the approximately 600 Austronesian languages of eastern Indonesia and the Pacific apart from Palauan, Chamorro, and possibly Yapese, is justified by a set of phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic, and semantic innovations that distinguish these languages from the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian family as a whole (Proto-Austronesian), and from the putative immediate ancestor of all non-Formosan Austronesian languages (Proto-Malayo-Polynesian). CMP, encompassing over 100 languages in the Lesser Sunda and Moluccan islands of eastern Indonesia, is justified by a set of phonological, lexical, and morphosyntactic innovations that often fail to include all members of the proposed group. These overlapping distributions of innovated features in CMP languages are interpreted as evidence for a rapid spread of Austronesian speakers through eastern Indonesia from a primary dispersal point in the Northern Moluccas soon after the separation of the ancestral CMP and EMP language communities. Within CMP, it is found that several languages of the Bomberai Peninsula on the southwest coast of New Guinea, including at least Sekar, Onin, and Uruangnirin, subgroup closely with Yamdena of the Tanimbar archipelago some 300 miles distant in the southern Moluccas. It is concluded that the Bomberai languages reached their historical locations through a back-migration from the southern Moluccas well after the initial Austronesian settlement of eastern Indonesia.

Austronesian root theory : an essay on the limits of morphology

Since the pioneering analyses of Renward Brandstetter (1860–1942) a quasi-morphological element called the ‘root’ has been recognized in Austronesian linguistics. This monograph confronts many of the methodological and substantive issues raised but never fully resolved by Brandstetter. In an effort to reassess the value of his work for contemporary linguistics the author examines Brandstetter’s methods and results, and applies a modified from of this approach to new material. The study establishes 230 roots based on more than 2,560 root tokens in some 117 languages. It is thus intended to serve as a rudimentary root dictionary and a basic handbook on the subject of the root for future scholars of Austronesian.

Nasals and nasalization in Borneo

This paper discusses the phenomena of nasal harmony, nasal preplosion, and nasal postplosion in several languages spoken in Borneo. Unlike Indo-European languages, it is concluded that most Austronesian languages have onset-driven nasal harmony. Nasal preplosion is attested in several geographically discontinuous regions of Borneo, and among Austronesian languages elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Moreover, in some cases nasal preplosion can be inferred historically in languages which no longer have it. A global survey of similar nasalization processes is undertaken in the hope of shedding light on the mechanisms and motivation underlying nasal preplosion, and its possible triggering effects on nasal postplosion.

Notes on Pazeh Phonology and Morphology

Pazeh, once the heritage of a substantial language community in the Puli basin of central Taiwan, appears to be down to its last fluent speaker. Several linguists have worked on the language in recent years, all drawing on the same resource, but arriving at somewhat different transcriptions and analyses. This paper presents an analysis of the synchronic and historical phonology of Pazeh, and provides the most complete inventory of affixes described to date. Loanwords suggest a period of fairly intensive contact with Taokas, thereby implying that the Pazeh were on the western plain within the relatively recent past. The linguistic position of Pazeh remains obscure, because some apparent exclusively shared innovations point to a closer relationship with Saisiyat, while others point to a closer relationship with Thao and the core group of Western Plains languages (Taokas, Papora, Hoanya, Favorlang/ Babuza). Both in its phonology and its morphology, this little-studied language sheds light on aspects of Proto-Austronesian that are only feebly attested in the language family as a whole

AUSTRONESIAN SIBLING TERMS AND CULTURE HISTORY

Etude linguistique sur les sibling terms de la famille linguistique des Austronesiens, aspects anthropologiques et histoire de leur culture.

Austronesian nasal substitution: A survey

Nasal substitution, which replaces a base-initial obstruent with the homorganic nasal under prefixation, is arguably the most prominent morphonological process seen in Austronesian languages, as it is an active part of the verbal morphology of most languages of the Philippines and western Indonesia, as well as Malagasy, Chamorro, and Palauan. Although a comparative overview of this process was provided by Otto Dempwolff in the 1930s, and has been elaborated in several later studies, the full range of cross-linguistic variation in the form of nasal substitution has not previously been fully appreciated. This paper seeks to document the rich variability of the process of nasal substitution across languages, and show that recent attempts to discover a motivation for nasal substitution within the framework of Optimality Theory are inadequate, and are likely to remain so in any currently conceivable version of the theory.

Austronesian Etymologies: III

The following set of Austronesian etymologies is the third and last of the sequels promised in Blust (1980a). Little new descriptive material of consequence has become available since the publication of Austronesian Etymologies-III (Blust 1986). As a result the search for new etymologies has grown more difficult, since the basic sources have already been worked repeatedly. In an effort to retrieve the numerous comparisons that still undoubtedly remain to be found, I have been forced to rely increasingly on unconventional comparative techniques. These are important enough to merit a brief discussion, along with certain other issues.

Notes on Berawan consonant gemination

De nombreuses consonnes geminees moyennes en terawan berawan ne peuvent pas etre expliquees par les processus habituels de la formation des geminees. Un autre processus semble etre responsable de la haute incidence des geminees moyennes, bien que ses bases phonetiques demeurent obscures