Austronesian linguistics

Buckley C (2017) Looms, Weaving and the Austronesian Expansion. In: Cultural Exchanges in Monsoon Asia:  Andrea Acri , Roger Blench  and Alexandra Landmann (eds), ISEAS, Singapore.

Weaving plays an important role in Asian cultures, both in the practical and symbolic spheres. In this paper I trace the weaving technologies of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) to their origins on the Asian mainland. A distinctive suite of technologies, including the body-tensioned loom, warp ikat and the tubular sarong, is found across a wide area. In ISEA it is associated with Austronesian speakers, and remnants of it are found on the mainland amongst Daic and Austroasiatic speakers. Significantly, it is absent on Taiwan, which (together with Hainan and parts of Laos and Vietnam) preserve an older form of the loom. I conclude that the weaving traditions of ISEA came directly from the mainland, rather than via Taiwan.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2020. On a Rapanui Song about the Gathering of Nuts. The paper. 3 pages.

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “On a Rapanui Song about the Gathering of Nuts” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on February 11, 2020.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, Austronesian, Proto-Polynesian, PPN

7th East Nusantara Conference (ENUS7) in Kupang, Indonesia, on 14 May 2018.

This talk deals with the question whether Atadei (or South Lembata) should be considered a distinct language or a dialect of Lamaholot. Evidence is presented by looking at the cognacy with close relatives, by phonological comparison, by morphological characteristics, and by syntactic features.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 1999. Utrachenny klyuch k pis’mennosti ostrova Paskhi. In: Y.A. Sorokin and A.M. Kholod (eds.) Versii antropotsentrizma (materialy III mezhdunarodnogo simpoziuma “Chelovek: yazyk, kul’tura, poznanie”, 27-28 aprelya 1999 goda, g. Krivoi Rog, Ukraina).  Moscow – Krivoy  Rog: The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences; the Saksagani Library, pp. 89-91.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, Austronesian

Scholars are still debating whether the argument realization of the "Philippine-type focus system" is ergative, split-ergative/accusative or symmetrical but not ergative (Himmelmann 2005). Major languages of the Philippines and of Taiwan are often the source for examples in these discussions, but minor languages (Reid 1971) are seldom considered. In this study we compare the argument realization systems of five of the fifteen Manobo languages spoken in the South Philippines, with the one of Tagalog. We found that while Tagalog has at least nine types (functions or roles) of arguments which can be pointed to as "topics" by verbal affixation, the lower number often found in Manobo grammars may be more a question of different grammatical frameworks used by their authors than the consequence of a reduced set of verbal affixes. We also found that while Paiwan or Tagalog show three differentiated case markers for non-personal core arguments, several of the Manobo language descriptions show four sets of case markers or pronouns. But the specific functions even of the three most used do not necessarily match those of the Paiwan or Tagalog ones, which differ from each other anyway as well in their distribution (Ross 2002:22); furthermore, some of the Manobo languages use one unique marker for at least 2 or even 3 of the four types, leading to more potential ambiguities, which is we believe the reason why the usage of demonstratives to complement the "determiner" role of the markers seems much more frequent in Manobo texts than in Tagalog. While this study is not likely to bring any breakthrough in the ergativity debate, it may contribute, by analyzing lists of cognate particles, affixes and pronouns, to summarize data for the diachronic studies to decide whether Proto-Austronesian was already of the Philippine-type, or was accusative.

This chapter discusses grammatical relations (GRs) in Balinese (ISO 639-3: ban, Austronesian, spoken by ~3 million, mainly in Bali, Indonesia). It is demonstrated that Balinese typologically shows relational properties typical for the Indonesian type of Austronesian languages, in terms of voice marking, argument marking, GR alternations, and other related processes such as relativisation, reflexivisation and control. In a wider typological context, Balinese shows splitS in terms of verbal morphology. Syntactically the overall grammar of Balinese shows a symmetrical alignment system: actor (A) and patient (P) arguments of transitive verbs can be equally selected as the grammatical subject or Pivot without the demotion of the other. In addition to voice morphology (showing AV, UV, and middle alternations), Balinese also has applicative and causative morphology, which is good evidence that semantic roles and surface grammatical relations are organised as two distinct layers in the grammar. It is demonstrated in this chapter that much of Balinese syntax revolves around the notion of the privileged argument of Pivot, and its related morphosyntactic and morphosemantic properties in the voice system, in both simple and complex structures; e.g. in clausal argument with/without control and adverbial clauses. We start with the distinction between grammatical relations and grammatical functions (section 2), followed by the selecting properties of Pivot (section 3). Balinese grammar also exhibits a set of properties distinguishing core arguments from obliques, discussed in sections 4 and 5. Three-place predicates are discussed in section 6. It is shown that Balinese exhibits a secundative alignment. Adjuncts are very similar to obliques but they are different in certain respects (section 7). Clausal dependants (complements and adverbial clauses) are discussed in sections 8-9. A conclusion is given in section 10.

The development of Austronesian culture was spread out along Southeast Asia and adjacent areas to Pacific Archipelago and Madagascar. This culture originally came f rom Taiwan or Formosa. The topic of this research is how the spreading process of the Austronesian speakers and its influence in culture in Southeast Asia. Focusing the development from Taiwan to all Southeast Asia region within a period of time from 4500 to 1500 years ago by exploring of Austronesia cross the Indian Ocean. This research is using qualitative descriptive methods by analysing Austronesian culture development, which were collected using literature review. The results of the research that Austronesians languages have an important role in various things such as technology of boat building, maritime culture, agrarian culture, burial rituals, and belief in ancestors.

The Formosan languages are the languages of the Aboriginal peoples of Taiwan. These languages are part of the Austronesian language family, and represent all but one primary branch of this family of 1,200+ languages. The Formosan languages are endangered, some critically so. While these languages have seen attention in the literature for their syntactic and phonological systems, little work has been done on their prosodic structure or intonation.

This dissertation analyzes the prosodic structure and intonational phonology of Mantauran Rukai, Budai Rukai, Tsou, Kanakanavu, Hla’alua, Sandimen Paiwan, Piuma Paiwan, Kavalan, Amis, Bunun, Tgdaya Seediq, Truku Seediq, and Pazeh, based on original fieldwork. In addition, archival materials are incorporated into analyses of Tsou, Truku Seediq, Tgdaya Seediq, and Puyuma.

This study finds that the Formosan languages show rich tonal phonologies in their intonational systems, and have complex interactions between stress assignment and morphology. Some examples include the following: Mantauran Rukai, previously described as an initial-stress language, actually has a complex stress assignment system with an alternation between first- and third-syllable stress, which as a system is unique in descriptions of stress assignment in the world’s languages. Hla’alua (Saaroa), previously described as having free variation between antepenultimate and penultimate stress, actually has an accent system in which some lexical items are consistently produced without an accented syllable, while others are. Hla’alua also has a rich tonal phonology assigned at two higher levels of the prosodic hierarchy. Kavalan has a unique rule that causes spreading tones to shift to the opposite domain edge when a certain number of tonal elements are aligned to the same boundary. Elements of the intonational phonology in Amis and Kavalan include glottal stops in addition to tonal elements. Bunun has distinct pitch accent melodies for words vs. clitics.

In addition to the unique features found in individual Formosan languages, this dissertation’s comparative study finds at least two geographic areas within Taiwan in which features of prosody and intonation cluster. One is southwestern Taiwan, including Tsou, Kanakanavu, Hla’alua, and Rukai, which share features including a lack of glide-vowel contrasts and variability of initial H vs. L elements in certain prosodic domains. The other is eastern Taiwan, including Amis, Kavalan, and Puyuma, which share features including suppression of non-IP-final pitch accents, alternations between ultimate and pre-ultimate F0 peaks across intonational contours, and interactions between glottal stop epenthesis and intonational phonology.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2019. The Gods Tinirau and Tangaroa in Polynesian Life: A Fresh Portion of Facts. The paper. 15 pages.

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “The Gods Tinirau and Tangaroa in Polynesian Life: A Fresh Portion of Facts” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on September 12, 2019.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, Fiji, Fijian, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, rock art, petroglyphs, Proto-Polynesian, PPN reconstructions

The isolating languages of Central Flores (Austronesian) are typologically distinct from their nearby relatives. They have no bound morphology, as well as elaborate numeral classifier systems, and quinary-decimal numeral systems. McWhorter (2019) proposes that their isolating typology is due to imperfect adult language acquisition of a language of Sulawesi, brought to Flores by settlers from Sulawesi in the relatively recent past. I propose an alternative interpretation, which better accounts for the other typological features found in Central Flores: the Central Flores languages are isolating because they have a strong substrate influence from a now-extinct isolating language belonging to the Mekong-Mamberamo linguistic area (Gil 2015). This explanation better accounts for the typological profile of Central Flores and is a more plausible contact scenario.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2021. The Forgotten Key to the Easter Island Writing System. Paper. 4 pages.

Abstract. The rongorongo records in the Esteban Atan manuscript are the real clue to the mysterious script of Easter Island (Rapanui).

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “The Forgotten Key to the Easter Island Writing System” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on November 21, 2021.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, Austronesian

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2021. The Rongorongo Script as the Faithful Key to Understanding the Easter Island Culture. Krasnodar: The Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures. 54 pages.

CONTENTS                                                                                                                                       

Chapter 1. About the Rongorongo Record with the Name of King Hata on a Wooden Artifact from Easter Island
Chapter 2. The Rapanui Myth “The Bloody Big Toe”
Chapter 3. On the Genealogy of the Rapanui Kings (The Miru Group)
Chapter 4. New Rongorongo Records on Pendants Tahonga from Easter Island have been Deciphered
Chapter 5. The Rapanui Princess Ua Iri Tai from the Ruling Group Miru in the Drawings by Pierre Loti in 1872
Chapter 6. The Interpretation of the Drawing “Idol Festival in Easter Island” by Pierre Loti
Chapter 7. The Rapanui Mythology and Script: The Moon Goddess Hina Uri at the Ahu Taha Roa
Chapter 8. The Plot about the Fishery and the Full Moon in the Rapanui Rock Art
Chapter 9. On the Solar Cocks on a Panel Located Inland from the Ahu Raai on Easter Island
Chapter 10. On the Calendar Rongorongo Record on the Wall of the Ana o Keke Cave on Easter Island
Chapter 11. On the Legend of Hetereki Written on the Rongorongo Tablet W from Easter Island
Chapter 12. The Rapanui Myth of the God Hiva Kara Rere in the Rongorongo Script
Chapter 13. The Forgotten Key to the Easter Island Writing System
Chapter 14. The Records in the Esteban Atan Manuscript as the Key to the Rongorongo Script: The Continuation of Our Studies
Chapter 15. The Records in the Esteban Atan Manuscript as the Clue to the Rongorongo Script: The Sources in the Local Songs
Chapter 16. About the Rongorongo Inscription on the Paris Snuffbox
Chapter 17. The European Explorers on Easter Island: The Records on the Santiago Staff

Abstract. Sergei V. Rjabchikov continues his investigation of the rongorongo inscriptions which are the reliable key to the ancient Easter Island (Rapanui) culture. In particular, the author has found the records on the Santiago staff which belonged to the famous Rapanui king Nga Ara about the Holland discovery of the island in 1722, about the Spanish expedition of 1770 and about the British expedition of 1774.

Keywords: writing, rongorongo, script, hieroglyphic script, folklore, mythology, rock art, petroglyphs, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Easter Island, Polynesia, Proto Polynesian, Austronesian

Panay is the Philippines' sixth largest island and is home to the lingua franca of Western Visayas, Hiligaynon. Within Panay, the northwestern region is specially diverse, having at least five different languages comprising its local linguistic ecology. These languages include Aklanon (and Malaynon), Kinaray-a and Caluyanen from the Western Visayan branch, in addition of Inati and Capiznon from the Peripheral Visayan branch. Aklanon is particularly known for its unique feature among Visayan languages of having a voiced velar fricative [ɣ]. Using Voronoi mapping, spatial distribution of phonological and lexical features within the province of Aklan and nearby areas will be presented. Particular isoglosses and bundles of isoglosses marking major divisions between dialects at the municipal level will be identified. A similarity matrix based on these lexical and phonological features will also be calculated. Supplementary interpretations will be postulated based on distance-based clustering algorithms.

This paper focuses on lexical nominalization, clausal nominalization and complementation, and relativization in Isbukun Bunun (Formosan, Austronesian). Based on fieldwork in Taoyuan, Kaohsiung in Taiwan, it shows the similarities and dissimilarities between the three different linguistic phenomena. It is found that the Philippine focus system plays a very important role in all three phenomena and that some markers are shared between them.

The Eskimo–Aleut languages are believed to represent a separate prehistoric migration of people from Asia. The more credible proposals on the external relations and prehistoric contacts of Eskimo–Aleut concern one or more of the language families of northern Eurasia. The two serious genetic hypotheses are (1) 'Uralo-Siberian'/'Altaic' or more inclusively (2) 'Nostratic' ('Eurasiatic').

The comparative word list below provides data for connections between Eskimo- Aleut and Austronesian languages. It consists of comparisons of Proto-Eskimo (PE) or Proto-Eskimo-Aleut (PEA) and Proto-Austronesian (PAN) or Proto- Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) words.

The Part I contains canonical comparisons: those with one-to-one sound correspondences/with one other final sound in PE (only in words with the uncontroversial PAN stops and sonants *p, *t, *k, *q, *m, *n + *l, *ŋ) or with regular sound correspondences (PAN *S – PE *c, PAN *s – PE *c, PAN CeC > Yupik CeC, Inupik CiC) and identical or close semantics.

Examples: PAN *sekel 'bend, bow' - PE *cikə- 'to bend down, to lower', PAN
*sukud 'walking stick, cane, staff' - PE *cuka- 'post, pole', PMP *akaR 'root' -
PE *aku 'root of a plant'

This chapter examines what is an under-researched field encompassing stress, tone,  and  intonation.  Apart from summarizing the relatively little  that is known about intonation in the area under scrutiny, the chapter is primarily concerned with stress  systems. Of particular interest is that recent research has suggested that for several  western Austronesian languages, including most notably Indonesian, stress is entirely absent.  The sporadic appearance of tone in western Austronesian languages (including Chamic and West New Guinea) is notable for the variety of tonal systems  found and the role of contact with non2Austronesian tonal languages.

In this article, the link between migration, community forming and language change of the Urak Lawoi’ (UL) people is made evident. Descriptive and comparative linguistic research, conducted since February 2010 in several Urak Lawoi’ communities on Thailand’s Andaman coast  has supplied most of the data. Some additional data have been selected from earlier research, notably that by Amorn Thawisak (1986).
Urak Lawoi’ is a highly adaptive language that has developed alongside other Malay languages from the Malayan group (which also includes Para Malay languages such as Minagkabau and Temuan). Like the vocabulary of other Malay languages, such as Johor-Riau, Jambi, Kedah, Bengkulu and Pattani, that of UL is for the greater part cognate with the modern standard Malay (SM) languages, the most well known of which are the national languages of Malaysia (Bahasa Malaysia; BM) and Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesia; BI)3. When spoken, UL cannot be properly understood by speakers of SM. This is, however, primarily due to certain regular sound changes. By comparing UL with other Malay languages, and by considering loans in vocabulary and grammar which have occurred over time, we can define the place where the Urak Lawoi’ originated as a people, where they went from there, and in which places they chose to settle semi-permanently before making Southern Thailand their permanent domicile.
The Urak Lawoi’ have a lot in common with other Malay people, but there are also many things in which they differ. Originally a nomadic sea people, they have hardly been indianized and never been islamized, and until today hold on to their own animistic beliefs. Nomadic as they were, the Urak Lawoi’ have been in contact with many other peoples and cultures, and though they never yielded to complete adaptation to a dominant society’s values, and only recently gave up their nomadic life style, they were to a great extend influenced by the groups they came into contact with. Many of these influences are reflected in the Urak Lawoi’ language. Urak Lawoi’ has loaned from Sanskrit, SM, English (directly and via SM) and most recently from Thai. So even though no written sources about the ethnic homeland of the Urak Lawoi’ exist, by tracing linguistic development and influences we can trace back the path to their place of origin - which lay along the eastern coast of Sumatra - with comparative ease. This paper offers to point out how migration, community forming and settlement of the Urak Lawoi’ is mirrored in their language.

Leiden Research MA Thesis (2018): The first part of this thesis consists of a synchronic phonological description of the Lio language (Austronesian: Flores, Eastern Indonesia) and the second part consists of a comparative reconstruction of the Central Flores Linkage to which it belongs.

It has sometimes been argued that the Kapampangan language will not be endangered by lexical borrowings from other languages and that lexical borrowings help enrich a language rather than endanger it. This paper aims to prove otherwise. Rather than being enriched, the socio-politically dominant Tagalog language has been replacing many indigenous words in the Kapampangan language in everyday communication. A number of everyday words that have been in use 20 years ago ~ bígâ (clouds), sangkan (reason), bungsul (to faint) and talágâ (artesian well) just to name a few ~ have all been replaced by Tagalog loan words and are no longer understood by most young people. This paper would present a list of all the words that have been replaced by Tagalog, and push the issue that lexical borrowing from a dominant language leads to endangerment rather than enrichment.

This paper investigates potential routes of Austronesian human migrations throughout Remote Oceania, Eastern Polynesia and the Micronesian Islands. It looks at past hypotheses and evaluates their effectiveness in relation to modern linguistic patterns and how this maps onto the archaeological record.

Is it Kapampángan or Capampáñgan? This petty squabble over orthography has for the past sixty years confused and discouraged native speakers from reading and writing their own native language. It is partly responsible for the retardation of Kapampangan/Capampangan literature and has thus far only promoted illiteracy rather than literacy. This paper aims to present in historical perspective the root causes of this problem and somehow discover a means to resolve it.

Philippine languages have caught the curiosity of linguists as to their true syntactic nature. This notion is due to their perplexing case-marking system. Several attempts to describe them have been reliant on restrictive structural, clause-level analyses. Such is the case for Aklanon, a Western Visayan language closely related to Tagalog and Cebuano. This paper hence looks back at Aklanon case marking system based on the initial analysis by dela Cruz and Zorc (1968) and Zorc (1977). This presents an ergative analysis, elaborating on morphosyntactic clues of transitivity. The Aklanon actor-voice clause type is intransitive, while this also licenses antipassivity based on Santiago’s (2015) definitions. These notions of ergativity and transitivity are supported by similar patterns exhibited by other Philippine-type languages, and likewise by uncontroversially ergative non-Philippine languages.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2019. The Rongorongo Script: Ten Papers. Krasnodar: The Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures.

CONTENTS

The Gods Tangaroa and Rongo as the Forefathers of the Hanau Momoko (the Tu'u Tribal Union), Easter Island

Halley's Comet Watched on Easter Island in 1682 A.D.: The Vital Sources of Information

Four Rongorongo Records were Traced in Rome

Two Rongorongo Records were Traced in Vienna

The Total Solar Eclipse on Easter Island in 1773 A.D.

The Rongorongo Inscriptions in Manuscript E Tell of King Hotu-Matua: The Urgent Report

The Rongorongo Inscriptions in Manuscript E Tell of King Hotu-Matua: The Additional Notes

The Rapanui Manuscript E Reveals Secrets: Some Farther Remarks

The Rapanui Manuscript E Reveals Secrets:The Real Bilingual Key to the Rongorongo has been Found

The Lost Talet Copied in Manuscript E Tells of the History of Easter Island


Keywords: writing, rongorongo, script, hieroglyphic script, Manuscript E, folklore, rock art, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Easter Island, Polynesia, string figure, petroglyph, archaeoastronomy, mythology

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2022. The Names of Kings Hinariru, Hotu-Matua and Tara are Inscribed on the Stone Hats at Akahanga, Easter Island: The Urgent Report. Paper, 4 pages.

Abstract. The author has decoded two rongorongo records engraved on stone hats (pukao) at Akahanga, Easter Island. As a result, the names of kings Hinariru, Matua (Hotu-Matua) and Tara have been read.

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “The Names of Kings Hinariru, Hotu-Matua and Tara are Inscribed on the Stone Hats at Akahanga, Easter Island: The Urgent Report” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on January 4, 2022.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, Austronesian

An understudied morphosyntactic innovation, reanalysis of the Proto-Austronesian (PAn) stative intransitive prefix *ma- as a transitive affix, offers new insights into Austronesian higher-order subgrouping. While Malayo-Polynesian is currently considered an Austronesian primary branch with no identifiably closer relationship with any linguistic subgroup in the homeland (Blust 1999, 2013; Ross 2005), the fact it displays the same innovative use of ma- with Amis, Siraya, Kavalan, and Basay-Trobiawan and shares the merger of PAn *C/t with this group suggests that Malayo-Polynesian and East Formosan may share a common origin – the subgroup that comprises the four languages noted above. This observation points to a renewed subgrouping more consistent with a socio-historical picture where the out-of-Taiwan population descended from a seafaring community expanding to the Batanes and Luzon after having developed a seafaring tradition. It also aligns with recent findings in archaeology and genetics that (i) eastern Taiwan is most likely the starting point of Austronesian dispersal (Hung 2005, 2008, 2019; Bellwood 2017; Bell- wood & Dizon 2008; Carson & Hung 2018) and (ii) the Amis bear a significantly closer relationship with Austronesian communities outside Taiwan (Capelli et al. 2001; Trejaut et al. 2005; McColl et al. 2018; Pugach et. al. 2021; Tatte et. al. 2021). Future investi- gation of more shared innovations between Malayo-Polynesian and East Formosan could shed further light on their interrelation.

Serão apresentadas a situação sociolinguística atual do Tetun Prasa e algumas questões de natureza variacionista. Posteriormente, serão contemplados os níveis de análise linguística dessa variedade: será feita uma descrição do léxico tetunófono; a variação presente na realização dos fonemas, assim como o status fonológico de alguns sons; em relação à morfologia, procurarei enfocar nos processos de morfologia derivacional e reduplicação, explicando os processos que levaram à obliteração do sistema de morfologia flexional; e a sintaxe dos concentrará na descrição dos principais sintagmas.

This paper is the conclusion of the historical linguistics study on the relationship between Tai-Kadai and Austronesian under the name of 'คนพู ดไท' (The story of people who speak Tai-Kadai). The study has been made thorough Tai and Indonesian languages and mainly focused on etymological point of view, in particular, the correlation of subsurface etyma, of which may be different from the mainstream studies. However, the subsurface etyma study has provided the interesting results; at least 32 cross-correlated monosyllabic roots have been identified. These roots are interpreted as very ancient as the proto-form of Austronesian and Tai-Kadai or even the earlier date. They are, in fact, considered as the grandparent of disyllabic words in Proto-Austronesian as well as in Proto-Tai-Kadai. They are the roots that can explain the history of Tai-Kadai and Austronesian very well and the most interesting is that they are the strong evidence in proving the existence of Austro-Tai.

Western Austronesian languages are typically defined in contrast to Oceanic languages as possessing a system of ‘symmetrical’ voice alternations (Himmelmann 2005a). These are alternations in the mapping of predicate arguments to grammatical functions but, unlike passives and antipassives, do not involve syntactic detransitivisation. Instead, symmetrical voice systems appear to involve multiple transitive clause-types that are equally morphologically marked and equally syntactically transitive. This has prompted two major debates about Western Austronesian syntax, namely whether or not Western Austronesian languages have a grammatical subject, and the nature of alignment in the languages.


Western-Austronesian languages are typically subdivided into Philippine-type languages and Indonesian-type languages on the basis of structural properties. Philippine-type languages are considered more conservative and Indonesian-type languages more innovative. The Apad Uat subgroup of Northern Sarawak, which includes Kelabit, is said to be split between Philippine type and Indonesian-type languages. Consequently, it presents a unique opportunity to enter into the theoretical debates and also to question whether the existing typology can capture the full extent of variation within Western Austronesian.


Using naturalistic and elicited materials gathered over six and a half months of linguistic fieldwork, this thesis presents an analysis of Kelabit grammar alongside three case studies of syntactic phenomena known to differ in Philippine-type and Indonesian-type languages: voice systems; pronominal systems and word order. In each instance, the patterns in Kelabit are neither proto-typically Philippine-type, nor proto-typically Indonesian type and hence constitute a type of their own. Moreover, they provide support for theories of alignment shift and other syntactic changes that begin with the reanalysis of the actor voice construction. Thus, it becomes apparent that the existing two-way typology is insufficient to model syntactic variation in Western Austronesian and that a more fine-grained approach is needed in order to better understand the synchronic and diachronic landscape.

Aklanon, a Philippine language under the Western Visayan branch, has been largely ignored by linguistic scrutiny for years. With a speculated number of speakers nearing half a million, it has been recently institutionalized by the Philippine government as a medium of instruction at the within the Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) scheme under the newly established K-12 curriculum. Prior to an apparent need to further its codification in academic texts, Aklanon continues to enjoy relative use in some government signages and local radio programs apart from its dominance in everyday speech within the province of Aklan, in the Philippines. This paper aims to identify bundles of isoglosses across a geographic area where Aklanon is reported to be natively spoken. Nearly 500 lexical items were used to determine varieties encompassing the towns of Malay, Nabas, Ibajay, Tangalan Makato, Numancia, Lezo, Banga, Malinao, Madalag, Libacao, Batan, Altavas, Balete, New Washington, and Kalibo, the provincial capital. Based on the patterns that emerged, salient lexical deviation in form is particular in Malay. Meanwhile, evidences from Nabas and Madalag revealed absence of the voiced velar fricative [ɣ]—claimed as a semivowel ([x]?) in existing literature (Zorc, 2005)—which was rather found to be present in most varieties. In place, [l] and [ɾ] are present for Nabas, and a higher incidence of [ɾ] are for Madalag. Presence of schwa [ə] in Madalag could also be noted with respect to discourse-motivated prosodic qualities. Overall, a large area across central until eastern Aklan province constitute a single isogloss exhibiting negligible lexical and phonological variations.

The Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian (STAN) family includes Sino-Tibetan in the narrow sense (that is, Chinese and Tibeto-Burman) and the Austronesian languages, the Tai-Kadai languages being regarded as a subgroup within Austronesian. This paper examines the vocabulary of agriculture, animal husbandry and other relevant cultural vocabulary shared by these groups to characterize the subsistence strategies of the ancestral group. It is proposed that the ancestral group was a farming society with two cereals: foxtail millet and rice, where pigs were raised perhaps using Setaria by-products as fodder, and net fishing was practiced. Domesticated rice and foxtail millet were domesticated in separate regions. They began to overlap in middle Yangshao sites like Baligang and Nanjiaokou in present-day Henan, c. 4500-4000 BCE. This area, where pigs were also raised, fits the picture established based on the testimony of the proto-lexicon. It is therefore proposed that the middle Yangshao culture in the 5th millennium BCE corresponds to proto-STAN. Form there, thanks to their successful and diversified life-style, speakers of proto-Stan expanded east and west. The eastern group, reaching the seaside in the 4th millennium, is represented archaeologically by the Dawenkou culture sites, with its foxtail millet, rice, pigs and increased reliance on fishing. It is speculated that groups of these people, having developed advanced navigation skills, became active along the eastern Chinese seabord, establishing settlements around river estuaries where fishing and agriculture could be practiced. One of these groups, the Austronesian founder group, reached the Danshui river estuary in NW Taiwan in the late 4th millennium BCE. Meanwhile, the western group developed in situ into Sino-Tibetan, and perhaps in the 4th millennium BCE, this again split into an eastern group that was to develop into Chinese and a western group which further diversified in to Tibeto-Burman.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2022. The Rongorongo Records on the Several Stone Hats from Easter Island have been Deciphered: The Urgent Report. Paper. 7 pages.

Abstract. The successful decoding of two rongorongo records (Rjabchikov 2022) engraved on stone hats (pukao) at Akahanga on Easter Island (Rapanui) is a good reason to continue the research of such inscriptions. Here we examine the petroglyphs (the real rongorongo records indeed) on pukao from four ahu and from the Puna Pau quarry. The depictions of rock designs are published recently (Hixon, Lipo, Hunt and Lee 2018: figures 7, 8 and 10).

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “The Rongorongo Records on the Several Stone Hats from Easter Island have been Deciphered: The Urgent Report” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on January 11, 2022.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, Austronesian

The current model of proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) holds that a unitary language was spoken in the Luzon Straits roughly four thousand years ago and that this diversified into all the extra-Formosan languages and was responsible for the Neolithic settlement of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and Oceania. The paper suggests that this is supported by neither the linguistics, the archaeology nor the distribution of material culture. Archaeology of ISEA after 4000 BP points to near simultaneous settlement in a wide variety of sites, while analysis of individual lexical items points to geographically biased distributions, suggesting they were selectively carried to different regions. Examples of material culture items associated exclusively with Austronesian culture are given, which again show strong geographical biases.

This points to a rather different model of time and place, here called the ‘boiling pot’ which assumes the Luzon Strait was an centre of innovative maritime technology and the starting point for voyages in canoes with multi-ethnic crews, establishing pioneer routes across the entire region and reconnecting with the non-Sinitic cultures of the mainland. This would then see PMP as a network of related subgroups, which can never fully reconstitute a unitary PMP, because no such entity existed.

Archaeological research of the last three decades in Southeast Asia suggest a greater role of the region in world culture development than had been assumed before, raising new interest in the role of Austronesians in global maritime communication. Basing on literary tradition, mythology and folklore, particularly on Nagas and the Serpent cult, also of linguistic data associated with the sacred tree cult and megaliths, names and distribution of some domesticated plants and spices, and early spice trade, a chronology of Austronesian activity in Indi and Sri Lanka in four periods is proposed, covering the time from c. 1000 B.C. till 700 A.D.

The following lines are inspired by John Kupchik's seminal article 'Austronesian Lights the Way' that appears in this volume of JEAL. It demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt for the first time that there are reliable Austronesian loanwords in Japonic that reveal quite ancient and profound contacts, because without these profound contacts the borrowing of the names of the most basic celestial bodies, such as the sun and the moon, would not be possible. In my opinion, his article opened a new and an exciting direction in the Japonic historical linguistics. There are, however, two important differences between Kupchik's article and the present one. First, while Kupchik mostly concentrated on the Amis language from Taiwan, and to a less extent on the languages of Philippines and other Western Malayo-Polynesian, my major focus is on the Philippines languages as potential donors, and much less on other Austronesian languages of the region. Second, while Kupchik looked mostly on mysterious words in the Omoro Sōshi, a collection of Old Okinawan and Amami sacred and folk poems (1531-1623 AD), this article focuses more on Old Japanese in particular and Japonic in general.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2022. The Rapanui Rock Picture about the Explorers: The Plot has been Decoded Entirely. Paper. 9 pages.

Abstract. In this paper Sergei V. Rjabchikov offers the complete interpretation of the Rapanui petroglyph of the explorer canoe and its crew on the basis of the readings of the famous rongorongo script of Easter Island.

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “The Rapanui Rock Picture about the Explorers: The Plot has been Decoded Entirely” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on April 5, 2022.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, Austronesian

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2022. The Rongorongo Record about King Tara Tahi and His Son Anua Motua on a Rock Panel on Nuku Hiva, the Marquesas Islands. Paper, 4 pages.

Abstract. The Marquesan king Tara Tahi and his son Matua (Motua, Anua Motua) once lived on Nuku Hiva. Perhaps they left that land. We know that both rulers voyaged afterwards via Mangareva to Easter Island. I believe that the rongorongo script was invented on the Marquesas Islands (Rjabchikov 2014: 164). Really, according to the Rapanui traditions, king Hotu-Matua possessed the knowledge of the rongorongo script, and took sixty-seven rongorongo tablets from his distant homeland to Easter Island (Thomson 1891: 514). The Rapanui king Hina Ri Ru (Hinalilu), who was in my opinion the Marquesan king Tara Tahi, wrote the rongorongo, and brought the records with him from the same remote island (Routledge 1998: 279).

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “The Rongorongo Record about King Tara Tahi and His Son Anua Motua on a Rock Panel on Nuku Hiva, the Marquesas Islands” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on April 24, 2022.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, Austronesian

This volume contains papers describing and discussing language change in the Austronesian languages of eastern Indonesia and Taiwan. The issues discussed include the unusual development of verbal infixes in the Cendrawasih Bay languages, dialect variations, patterns of borrowing and language contact in Taiwan and in Flores-Alor-Pantar languages of Indonesia, diachronic and synchronic aspects of voice systems of Sulawesi languages, and the reconstruction of Proto Austronesian personal pronouns. This volume should be of interest to Austronesianists and historical linguists.