Periodic Reporting for period 2 - OUTOFPAPUA (Papuans on the move. The linguistic prehistory of the West Papuan languages.)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-03-01 do 2023-08-31
New Guinea is one of the linguistically most diverse regions of the world, with more than 900 languages spread over less than 800,000km2. Yet, the Papuan languages of the island of New Guinea are among the least documented in the world, and their genealogical affiliations are one of the unsolved issues of present-day linguistics. Papuan historical linguistics has been notoriously mired in controversial classifications based on a mix of typological and lexicostatistical arguments (cf. Pawley’s 2005 review of these methods for another proposed Papuan family). Proposals of large families of Papuan languages have existed in various forms since the 1950s, but few, if any, of them have gained wide acceptance. A lack of reliable descriptive materials for the many languages of the region plus frequent scepticism on the part of linguists working in New Guinea about the possibility of establishing larger language families has meant that the proposals have not been tested through the application of historical linguistic methods.
The present project will advance our understanding of the linguistic dimension of the history of New Guinea by focusing on rigorously testing the proposed West Papuan family. The putative members of this hypothesised family are dispersed over a wide region on and around the Bird’s Head at the west extreme of New Guinea Island. Although the earliest, geographically most extensive proposals of a West Papuan family. Through a meticulous assessment of family affiliation and a subgroup-by-subgroup reconstruction of the West Papuan family, this project will bring serious comparative linguistic perspective to a long-standing historical problem.
This project addresses itself to the significant gap in research in the area of Papuan historical linguistics presented by the unresolved West Papuan hypothesis. We will ask: Is there a West Papuan language family? If so, what are the subgroups of the family? Where and when did the speakers of the hypothesised Proto-West Papuan language live? What triggered the expansion of its daughter languages? Were speakers of Austronesian languages in contact with speakers of Proto-West Papuan already or did contact only take place after the break-up of Proto-West Papuan? Whatever the answers to these questions, the project will gain many new insights into the homelands, dispersals, contacts and time-depths of individual subgroups of the so-called West Papuan languages.
The present project will advance our understanding of the linguistic dimension of the history of New Guinea by focusing on rigorously testing the proposed West Papuan family. The putative members of this hypothesised family are dispersed over a wide region on and around the Bird’s Head at the west extreme of New Guinea Island. Although the earliest, geographically most extensive proposals of a West Papuan family. Through a meticulous assessment of family affiliation and a subgroup-by-subgroup reconstruction of the West Papuan family, this project will bring serious comparative linguistic perspective to a long-standing historical problem.
This project addresses itself to the significant gap in research in the area of Papuan historical linguistics presented by the unresolved West Papuan hypothesis. We will ask: Is there a West Papuan language family? If so, what are the subgroups of the family? Where and when did the speakers of the hypothesised Proto-West Papuan language live? What triggered the expansion of its daughter languages? Were speakers of Austronesian languages in contact with speakers of Proto-West Papuan already or did contact only take place after the break-up of Proto-West Papuan? Whatever the answers to these questions, the project will gain many new insights into the homelands, dispersals, contacts and time-depths of individual subgroups of the so-called West Papuan languages.
As part of the OUTOFPAPUA project, we have developed a novel comparative database of West Papuan lexicons. The OUTOFPAPUA database is unique in that it is incorporates whole lexicons, alongside word lists and shorter lexical materials. The OUTOFPAPUA database is now significantly larger and richer than comparable lexical databases developed by linguists. But the OUTOFPAPUA database is not simply a data presentation platform, it is intended as a tool for discovering and tracking language relationships. There are 3 main tools to help with this in the database. (1) "set" function: The set function involves allows the linguist to link related lexemes together into a "set" and specify the relationship to one another. Within the set function, the linguist can add a reconstruction and specify the relationship of the set members, e.g. borrowed versus inherited. Within a set, the source of a borrowing in one language can be specified as coming from a specific language, e.g. Ternate borrowing in West Makian. The linguist can also mark out what specific material is relevant using the reflex function which involves using the pipe to bracket the relevant item in a head word – this is useful for isolating cognate material in compounds and morphological complex forms. (2) "mapping" function: The mapping tool within the datbase allows for one or more sets to have their geographical extent simultaneously charted. Maps are fully customisable and can be used to show, e.g. the different diffusion routes taken by lexemes and their major vectors. (3) "comparison" function: this tool allows users to quickly compare languages, minimally pairwise. The tool works by matching glosses across compared languages and allows the user to link them together.
A major component of the OUTOFPAPUA project is to collect fresh field data on targeted languages in the West Papuan region. Despite a delay in fieldwork due to the coronavirus pandemic, data collection has now begun and work on this is ongoung. The OUTOFPAPUA team is working in collaboration with linguists and institutions in Indonesia to create new primary descriptive linguistic materials on languages that are of significance to the West Papuan Hypothesis. We have working cooperations in place with the CELD at University of Papua, Manokwari, the University of Indonesia and Sanata Dharma University and local communities for the documentation of languages in the region.
A major component of the OUTOFPAPUA project is to collect fresh field data on targeted languages in the West Papuan region. Despite a delay in fieldwork due to the coronavirus pandemic, data collection has now begun and work on this is ongoung. The OUTOFPAPUA team is working in collaboration with linguists and institutions in Indonesia to create new primary descriptive linguistic materials on languages that are of significance to the West Papuan Hypothesis. We have working cooperations in place with the CELD at University of Papua, Manokwari, the University of Indonesia and Sanata Dharma University and local communities for the documentation of languages in the region.
The OUTOFPAPUA project is aimed at making significant advances in the scientific understanding of the linguistic dimension of the history of New Guinea with particular focus on the eastern Indonesian region. The definitive establishment of genealogical connections between mainland New Guinea and outlier Papuan languages such as that suggested by the West Papuan Hypothesis has significant repercussions for the prehistory of Island Southeast Asia, implying sustained long-distance interactions and maritime voyaging between New Guinea and Island Southeast Asia in the pre-Austronesian period.
A major barrier to a proper assessment of the West Papuan hypothesis lies in the identification and exclusion of lexical borrowings. A particular issue is the need to understand the dynamics of lexical circulation and Wanderwӧrter in the area. To address this, the OUTOFPAPUA project team been intensively engaged in charting loan word transmission across the West Papuan area and identifying which languages are the major vectors for loanword dispersal. We have identified a significant role for lexical borrowing from the Papuan language Ternate in the formation of distinctive Malay varieties of the North Moluccas, Northern Sulawesi and Papua. What is more, other loan words from Ternate have been borrowed into the Biak language and, because of the Biak people's role as major traders in the area, these loan words have dispersed widely around the Bird's Head and into Cenderawasih Bay.
A signifcant contribution to historical linguistics being undertaken by the OUTOFPAPUA project is the study of patterns of colexification and lexical typological features of Papuan languages. Synchronic colexications are the source of historical semantic shifts and through a consideration of these synchronic patterns the project is helping to advance the ability of historical linguists to detect cognates across Papuan languages. This work will result in better and more detailed lexical histories of Papuan languages into the future.
A major barrier to a proper assessment of the West Papuan hypothesis lies in the identification and exclusion of lexical borrowings. A particular issue is the need to understand the dynamics of lexical circulation and Wanderwӧrter in the area. To address this, the OUTOFPAPUA project team been intensively engaged in charting loan word transmission across the West Papuan area and identifying which languages are the major vectors for loanword dispersal. We have identified a significant role for lexical borrowing from the Papuan language Ternate in the formation of distinctive Malay varieties of the North Moluccas, Northern Sulawesi and Papua. What is more, other loan words from Ternate have been borrowed into the Biak language and, because of the Biak people's role as major traders in the area, these loan words have dispersed widely around the Bird's Head and into Cenderawasih Bay.
A signifcant contribution to historical linguistics being undertaken by the OUTOFPAPUA project is the study of patterns of colexification and lexical typological features of Papuan languages. Synchronic colexications are the source of historical semantic shifts and through a consideration of these synchronic patterns the project is helping to advance the ability of historical linguists to detect cognates across Papuan languages. This work will result in better and more detailed lexical histories of Papuan languages into the future.