I am a Canberra based researcher and consultant in linguistics, specializing in Southeast Asian languages and language history, forensic linguistics, and applied research for security and law-enforcement.
The distribution of rice terms and decimal counting forms suggest diffusion from a common locus i... more The distribution of rice terms and decimal counting forms suggest diffusion from a common locus in Northern Indo-China. pAA history is punctuated: it was already an old language family when rice agriculture diffused into the area with the late Neolithic. Branches were already distinct but in contact - a situation that still exists today in the uplands and borderlands of SEAsia. The deep chronology model of AA is broadly correct, ambiguous branching relations at levels greater than 3kyr BP is partly due to a long history of contact between branches in Northern Indo-China until population movements separated communities, disrupting long standing social connections.
This is a presentation given by Paul Sidwell and Mark Alves at the ICAAL 9 conference held by Lun... more This is a presentation given by Paul Sidwell and Mark Alves at the ICAAL 9 conference held by Lund University 18 November 2021. It presents a phylogenetic tree of the Vietic branch of Austroasiatic. We used lexical data on 29 Vietic languages and lects (Vietnamese, Muong, Ruc, Thavung, etc.), employing computational software, and checked for corroborating phonological and ethnohistorical information. A video version is available here: https://youtu.be/OBCkXrerD2E.
On the basis of historical linguistic and language geographic evidence, the authors advance the n... more On the basis of historical linguistic and language geographic evidence, the authors advance the novel hypothesis that the Munda languages originated on the east coast of India after their Austroasiatic precursor arrived via a maritime route from Southeast Asia, 3,500 to 4,000 years ago. Based on the linguistic evidence, we argue that pre-Proto-Munda arose in Mainland Southeast Asia after the spread of rice agriculture in the late Neolithic period, sometime after 4,500 years ago. A small Austroasiatic population then brought pre-Proto-Munda by means of a maritime route across the Bay of Bengal to the Mahanadi Delta region – an important hub location for maritime trade in historic and pre-historic times. The interaction with a local South Asian population gave rise to proto-Munda and the Munda branch of Austroasiatic. The Maritime Hypothesis accounts for the linguistic evidence better than other scenarios such as an Indian origin of Austroasiatic or a migration from Southeast Asia thr...
This is an Excel spreadsheet presenting lexical data for 122 Austroasiatic (AA) doculects, based ... more This is an Excel spreadsheet presenting lexical data for 122 Austroasiatic (AA) doculects, based on a 200 item list of semantic values. Each lexical item is scored for cognate judgement within each numbered semantic value. The purpose is to permit and test phylogenetic and lexicostatistical analyses. It is anticipated that the data set contains unrecognised errors, and is generally deserving of improvement, and scholars are heartily invited to report any and all shortcomings, or to make such offers of improvement as they may feel appropriate; such with be received with humility and acted upon with enthusiasm.
The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia, 2021
This contribution is the ninth chapter of the following book. The Languages and Linguistics of Ma... more This contribution is the ninth chapter of the following book. The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia A comprehensive guide Edited by: Paul Sidwell and Mathias Jenny Volume 8 in the series The World of Linguistics https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110558142 --- (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110558142/html)
The distribution of rice terms and decimal counting forms suggest diffusion from a common locus i... more The distribution of rice terms and decimal counting forms suggest diffusion from a common locus in Northern Indo-China. pAA history is punctuated: it was already an old language family when rice agriculture diffused into the area with the late Neolithic. Branches were already distinct but in contact - a situation that still exists today in the uplands and borderlands of SEAsia. The deep chronology model of AA is broadly correct, ambiguous branching relations at levels greater than 3kyr BP is partly due to a long history of contact between branches in Northern Indo-China until population movements separated communities, disrupting long standing social connections.
This is a presentation given by Paul Sidwell and Mark Alves at the ICAAL 9 conference held by Lun... more This is a presentation given by Paul Sidwell and Mark Alves at the ICAAL 9 conference held by Lund University 18 November 2021. It presents a phylogenetic tree of the Vietic branch of Austroasiatic. We used lexical data on 29 Vietic languages and lects (Vietnamese, Muong, Ruc, Thavung, etc.), employing computational software, and checked for corroborating phonological and ethnohistorical information. A video version is available here: https://youtu.be/OBCkXrerD2E.
On the basis of historical linguistic and language geographic evidence, the authors advance the n... more On the basis of historical linguistic and language geographic evidence, the authors advance the novel hypothesis that the Munda languages originated on the east coast of India after their Austroasiatic precursor arrived via a maritime route from Southeast Asia, 3,500 to 4,000 years ago. Based on the linguistic evidence, we argue that pre-Proto-Munda arose in Mainland Southeast Asia after the spread of rice agriculture in the late Neolithic period, sometime after 4,500 years ago. A small Austroasiatic population then brought pre-Proto-Munda by means of a maritime route across the Bay of Bengal to the Mahanadi Delta region – an important hub location for maritime trade in historic and pre-historic times. The interaction with a local South Asian population gave rise to proto-Munda and the Munda branch of Austroasiatic. The Maritime Hypothesis accounts for the linguistic evidence better than other scenarios such as an Indian origin of Austroasiatic or a migration from Southeast Asia thr...
This is an Excel spreadsheet presenting lexical data for 122 Austroasiatic (AA) doculects, based ... more This is an Excel spreadsheet presenting lexical data for 122 Austroasiatic (AA) doculects, based on a 200 item list of semantic values. Each lexical item is scored for cognate judgement within each numbered semantic value. The purpose is to permit and test phylogenetic and lexicostatistical analyses. It is anticipated that the data set contains unrecognised errors, and is generally deserving of improvement, and scholars are heartily invited to report any and all shortcomings, or to make such offers of improvement as they may feel appropriate; such with be received with humility and acted upon with enthusiasm.
The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia, 2021
This contribution is the ninth chapter of the following book. The Languages and Linguistics of Ma... more This contribution is the ninth chapter of the following book. The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia A comprehensive guide Edited by: Paul Sidwell and Mathias Jenny Volume 8 in the series The World of Linguistics https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110558142 --- (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110558142/html)
The Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages (2 vols), 2014
The Handbook of the Austroasiatic Languages is the first comprehensive reference work on this imp... more The Handbook of the Austroasiatic Languages is the first comprehensive reference work on this important language family of South and Southeast Asia. Austroasiatic languages are spoken by more than 100 million people, from central India to Vietnam, from Malaysia to Southern China, including national language Cambodian and Vietnamese, and more than 130 minority communities, large and small. The handbook comprises two parts, Overviews and Grammar Sketches: Part 1) The overview chapters cover typology, classification, historical reconstruction, plus a special overview of the Munda languages. Part 2) Some 27 scholars present grammar sketches of 21 languages, representing 12 of the 13 branches. The sketches are carefully prepared according to the editors' unifying typological approach, ensuring analytical and notational comparability throughout.
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Conference Presentations
pAA history is punctuated: it was already an old language family when rice agriculture diffused into the area with the late Neolithic.
Branches were already distinct but in contact - a situation that still exists today in the uplands and borderlands of SEAsia.
The deep chronology model of AA is broadly correct, ambiguous branching relations at levels greater than 3kyr BP is partly due to a long history of contact between branches in Northern Indo-China until population movements separated communities, disrupting long standing social connections.
Papers
pAA history is punctuated: it was already an old language family when rice agriculture diffused into the area with the late Neolithic.
Branches were already distinct but in contact - a situation that still exists today in the uplands and borderlands of SEAsia.
The deep chronology model of AA is broadly correct, ambiguous branching relations at levels greater than 3kyr BP is partly due to a long history of contact between branches in Northern Indo-China until population movements separated communities, disrupting long standing social connections.