The Western Malayo-Polynesian Problem

“…This movement of people appears to have been rapid, and most of ISEA was settled by the descendants of these initial settlers within several hundred years [Bellwood, 2007]. The rapid expansion of Austronesian speaking people can be seen in the tree structure of Malayo-Polynesian, which lacks a "nested" internal structure and instead has a "rake-like" structure indicative of rapid population movements [Gray et al, 2009a, Smith, 2017a. Settlement of Borneo would therefore have taken place not long after the settlement of the Philippines and we may expect evidence for Austronesian settlement to begin appearing in the archaeological record between 3, 500 and 4, 000 B.P.…”

Section: Datingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental factors affect the evolution of linguistic subgroups in Borneo

Smith

Rama

2022

DIA

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This study investigates the relatedness and history of the Austronesian languages of Borneo, which is the third largest island in the world and home to significant linguistic diversity. We apply Bayesian phylogenetic dating methods to lexical cognate data based on four historical calibration points to infer a dated phylogeny of 87 languages. The inferred tree topology agrees with the mid and lower-level subgrouping proposals based on the classical comparative method, but suggests a different higher-level organization. The root age of the dated tree is shallower than the archaeological estimates but agrees with a hypothesis of a past linguistic leveling event. The inferred homelands of the major linguistic subgroups from a Bayesian phylogeographic analysis agree with the homeland proposals from archaeology and linguistics. The inferred homelands for four of the eight subgroups support the riverine homeland hypothesis whereby the major linguistic subgroups developed initially in communities situated along Borneo’s major rivers.

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“…5, 10, and 11) agree in reflecting PAN *-S as -h, but the eight cognate sets in table 4 that are shared by both languages exhibit multiple sound correspondences (C1-C3), as shown in (9): 7. Not all scholars accept Proto-Philippines (Reid 1982;Ross 1995Ross :73ff, 2005Smith 2017).…”

Section: Mamanwamentioning

confidence: 99%

The "Mystery Aspirates" in Philippine Languages

Blust¹

2018

Oceanic Linguistics

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The reconstruction of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) *h as a syllable onset continuing Proto-Austronesian (PAN) *S has depended heavily, though not exclusively, on Central Philippine languages, where it is well supported. In coda position, however, the reconstruction of *h has been more difficult. Word-final *h was initially proposed solely on the basis of phonological alternations in Tagalog, and only later shown to be reflected as a coda by Itbayaten of the Batanes Islands, and less securely by Aklanon in the Bisayas. New evidence for PMP *-h continuing PAN *S is introduced here from Central Luzon languages, Bisayan languages, and Mamanwa of Mindanao. In addition, revised material on Aklanon now shows that it, too, preserves coda /h/. However, not all examples of -h in Philippine languages can be traced to PAN *S. Rather, a surprising number of these segments correspond to zero in most previous reconstructions. More problematically, the cognate sets that contain -h involve multiple sound correspondences, raising difficult questions about their origin.

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The Western Malayo-Polynesian Problem

Cited by 17 publications

References 46 publications

Traces of Contact in the Lexicon

Traces of Contact in the Lexicon

Environmental factors affect the evolution of linguistic subgroups in Borneo

The "Mystery Aspirates" in Philippine Languages

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