Pottery Fragment, 1000 B.C.
Solomon Islands, Reef Islands
Nenumbo site, Lapita culture
Terra Cotta; h. 3 in. (7.5 cm)
Courtesy of the Photographic Archive, Department of Anthropology, University of Auckla
Photo from Metropolitan Museum of Art site.
1) Summarize Main Points of Assigned Reading:
Linguists separate the approximated 1400 languages in the Pacific into three general categories: Austronesian, Papuan, and Australian. Of all three, most information is known about Austronesian. (Lynch 1998, 45) Southeast Asia and the Pacific is largely occupied by peoples speaking languages within the Austronesian family. The area where Austronesian languages are found "stretch from Madagascar in the west to Easter Island in the east and includes the geographical areas of Indonesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, the Philippines, and Taiwan." (Dutton and Tryon, 1994, 1) "The Austronesian language family is one of the two largest language families in the world in number of member languages. The family as a whole has somewhere between 1000 and 1200 languages, spoken by almost three hundred million people." (Lynch 1998, 45)
Linguists do not collectively agree on the subgroups of the Austronesian language family, but most of the languages discussed in the Chapter 3 reading belong to the Oceanic subgroup. (Lynch 1998,46) The author further describes, "All Oceanic languages share a number of phonological, grammatical, and lexical innovations that are absent from other Austronesian languages." (46). The eight groups within Oceanic have only recently been established: Yapese group, Admiralty Islands group, Saint Matthias Islands group, Western Oceanic group, Southesat Solomons group, Southern Oceanic group, Micronesian group, and Central Pacific group. The subgrouping does not follow the traditional model of geographical-cultural regions of the Pacific divided into 3 regions: Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanisia; however, most of the Oceanic subgroups fall within Melanesia (50-51).
"Theories about past languages and language splits generally lead to theories about origins and migrations of peoples." (Lynch 1998, 51) It is believed that Austronesians expanded from Southeast Asia mainland to the Pacific region around 5000 B.C. due to population growth and improved agricultural techniques (51,53). The general migration flow is thought to be: from the Asian mainland to Taiwan, then to Philippines, onward to Malaysia, Indonesia, and Madagascar, and then outward across the Pacific Basin. (53-54, See Map 14) Back migration and failed settlements probably occurred due to external circumstances of population pressure, food shortages, political turmoil, disease, attacks by Papuan speakers, etc. (55) "Such factors complicate the neat splitting of communities suggested by family trees" and thus understanding these Austronesian language communities and their chronological framework becomes complicated. (55)
Although linguists cannot determine exact dates for language diversion, archeological evidence (such as pottery, e.g. Lapita, photo from link) can help provide general time frame estimates. Austronesian languages of Melanesia contain more linguistic diversity due to contact with Papuan languages and a longer period of existence. (57) Reconstructing the vocabulary of Proto Oceanic gives insight into what this population group found culturally important such as: canoes and fishing, pottery, food crops, fruits and nuts, animals and birds, and social structure.
2) Other Comments? Identify any other questions and explore solutions?
I apologize if this blog is a little long. I knew very little about the Austronesian language family so I needed more structure and references to be clear. I found the reading to be straight forward, but here are some items I found interesting to me while reading the selected reading…
1) I 1) I learned that Tagalog (the national language of the Philippines) is in the Austronesian language family! My father is from Laguna, Philippines; it was helpful to learn a little bit more about the background of the language he has been teaching me. I found an additional site that has a chart comparing word similarities between some Austronesian languages (scroll down to the bottom for the chart, Tagalog is in the left hand column).
2) 2) I found the grouping and subgrouping of Austronesian to be a little confusing for someone learning the basics of linguistics. It turns out there is debate about it, or so I read in a journal article by Ross and Pawley from the Australian National University. If you are interested understanding more about that see that journal in the Works Cited below. There are sections called "Challenges to the Oceanic Hypothesis" and "Recent Proposals about High Order Subgroups".
Works Cited:
Dutton and Tryon et al. Language Contact and Change in the Austronesian World. Walter de Gruyter, 1994. Google Book Link. <http://books.google.com/
Lynch, John. Pacific Languages: an Introduction. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998. Chapter 3(p. 45-59).
Pawley and Ross. Austronesian Historical Linguistics and Culture History. Annu Rev. Anthropol. 1993. 22-425-459.
14 comments:
Thanks for your post, Kary. I'm looking forward to what your classmates will add in the comment section. Have any other folks encountered the concept of the 'Austronesian Family' elsewhere? In what contexts?
From a Biblical standpoint, migration started from ancient Babylon with the tower of Babel. What occurred: Language Confusion.
One people, One continent. With this, migration from the east/southeast region of the Pacific may have had some relation with people migrating from the middle east. From a Biblical standpoint.
I found the reading to be confusing, but that's because I've never took a linguistic class before, and I'm also no good at geography. I was born and raised in Hawai'i all my life and assumed there were only a few languages spoken by natives of the Pacific Islands such as Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan,and Maori. Therefore, I was surprised to read that there are 1400 languages of the Pacific, many which are foreign to me and can't even pronounce. I enjoyed your elaboration on the filipino language and that you provided a link, which I checked out by the way.
Thank you for your very detailed summary of the reading. I really enjoyed the reading because the information was interesting and new to me. Although I have grown up in Hawaii, I have spoke English for the majority of my life. I am only now becoming more familiar with the Hawaiian Language and its history. It is absolutely amazing to know that there are over 1400 languages being spoken in the Pacific. Who would have ever guessed that so many existed!!! I find it fascinating. I have always had interest in languages and have studied a little about Tahitian, Chamorro and Samoan in addition to Hawaiian. The migration patters described in the reading are different than what I have learned in my studies with Hawaiian history probably because I have always heard what the Hawaiians believed rather than the actual scientific discoveries. The site you found is great and much related to our current studies. Thanks for the post!!!!
I had a hard time understanding how linguists can differentiate how many languages and dialects exist. Like the example given in class and in the book of the seperate islands:
A B C D E F G
How do linguists decide what languages and/or dialects exist on these islands? Are there only 2 languages because A and G can't understand each other, and the rest are dialects of either A or G? Or does a third (or even fouth) language also exist somewhere in between?
I also thought that the material is a bit too dense and dry for students that have not encountered linguistics yet.
Thank you for your great and detailed summary. I was born in Korea, and I've never lived in another country for a long time. So I didn't know about pacific languages that well. So it was surprising for me to know how many languages exist in the pacific, and how they are related to each other.
good summary. well written indeed.
and linguists don't determine or make up what langauges are spoken in other countries or regions. its just what is happening.
in the ABCDEFG model, there could be 7 different languages/dialects spoken in those 7 regions. the neighboring regions will naturally understand each other because they are in contact with them on the daily.
for example, people living in San Francisco will not understand the dialects spoken in Brooklyn, New York. Just as how people have a hard time understanding Pidgin English in Hawaii, when they are from like Texas or something
At first, I also found the reading difficult to understand. There is so much information on so many different languages. However, your post does help to straighten things out. I do find it quite interesting that Austronesian languages have spread so far across the Pacific. It was really interesting that you found that it even appears in a part of the Philippines. I believe that migration plays a big part in having these many languages. I also agree with Tianna how can you tell the difference between languages and dialects? It shows that many languages share similar words and go even as far as the structure of senstences. Yet, they say becaus we don't understand eachother it's considered a different language. With so much migration and similarties how can one tell the difference.
Anyone experienced an error while trying to comment?
Great read and what a way to set the bar with this first blog Kary! Chapter 3 is quite geographic intensive, the Oceanic subgroup groups left me a bit frustrated. I do find it interesting how linguist use their study of language to "date" migrations and movements of people based on the evolution of the language. Brings us back to Professor Glenn's example of using a path through the woods causes it to change as others alter it.
One of the most interesting part of the Lynch readings describes the reconstructing of culture using the words they are able to reconstruct. I wonder why they did not have words for "sweet potato" and "cassava," they make great dishes!
Thanks for the great summary of the class reading! I thought it did a good job of describing the complexity of trying to trace a family tree for a group as huge as that of Austronesian languages, with all the subgroups and language splits, and also explaining about how they mirror migrations and other events.
Study of historical linguistics in the Pacific seem to be closely related/connected to anthropology and archeology theories there... The photo of a Lapita pottery fragment made me curious as to whether its date fits the timeline for migration flow mentioned.
In addition to the photo, I also enjoyed the Austronesian Language Family table that was linked to, with its lists of cognate words. Even knowing the relatedness of all the languages beforehand, there's nothing like being able to see all the concrete similarities in words for yourself (especially since I don't know any Austronesian languages)!
I can agree with you that the general migration flow all started from Southeast Asia then branching outwards throughout Oceania.
I realize with over 1400 languages spoken throughout Oceania all languages are related to the 'Austronesian family.'
When I went to the Phillipines couple years back. I went to a city called Baguio. The majority of the language spoken there was Tagalog. I find the similarities between some Austronesian languages and Tagalog interesting. I would like to learn more about Tagalog in the future. I find the grouping and subgrouping to be quite difficult understanding, so thanks for that journal article in the works cited section by Ross and Pawley. "Challenges to the Oceanic Hypothesis" was helpful! So are we all "Austronesian?"
I found this reading a little overwhelming the first time I read it, but after the second time, I finally pieced everything together. The reading turned out to be very informative and quite interesting. I had no idea that there were so many languages spoke in the Pacific, but now that I think about it, Hawaii is kind of a melting pot of ethnicities.
After studying the Hawaiian language in high school I learned about a few other languages spoken in Hawaii but now my eyes are open to a whole new group of languages that deserve to be exposed and shared with others.
Post a Comment