50. The Melanesians
The Papuans
by George Weber
WORK IN PROGRESS
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Table of Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Offshore Papua-Newguinea languages revealed to be ancient by new linguistic analysis |
5. Offshore Papua-Newguinea languages revealed to be ancient by new linguistic analysis
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See also Appendix P for a general introduction to pushing back linguistic research into prehistoric times by the use of methods borrowed from evolutionary biology which is relevant to the following article, which is a summary of an article by Dunn M. et al (ref. 1). |
The study of languages until now has not significantly contributed to our knowledge of human dispersal and migrations before 8-10,000 years ago, i.e. to the end of the last ice age (pleistocene). This time is the maximum that the linguistic comparison of words can take us back with any degree of confidence.
A method new to linguistics but well-established in genetics has now brought renewed hope of a breakthrough in the matter (ref. 1). Instead of studying and comparing the history of vocabularies (i.e. single words) as been the usual method until now, linguists have now applied methods borrowed from biological sciences to linguistics to a group they have done so not to vocabularies but to grammar and sound systems. The result has been impressive and there is every likelihood that the new methods can and will be applied to a great many other languages world-wide, extending the reach of linguistic research much deeper into prehistoric times. This is likely to be a most significant scientific breakthrough.
The method was first tested on well-known and well-understood Oceanic branch of the Australasian language family which includes the Malayo-Polynesian languages that are of most interest here: many languages in the Philippines, Indonesia, and most of the languages spoken on the Pacific islands (including the Melanesian and Polynesian languages).
When the method worked well on the Australasian languages, it was also applied to a well-defined group of languages belonging to the Papuan (also known as Newguinean) language family. These are languages spoken on islands to the east of Papua-Newguinea often collectively called "island Melanesia": the Bismarck and Louisiade archipelagos, the Solomon islands and Bougainville island. Some languages spoken there were Papuan but were otherwise unrelatable isolates, others were Austronesian.
Papua-Newguinea is (ref. 2)
... linguistically the most complex region in the world, with approximately 1,100 languages (25% of the world's total).
The enormous linguistic diversity in and around Papua-Newguinea almost certainly means that the Papuan people living there have been in the area for a very long time and been relatively little disturbed. Indeed, earliest traces of modern humans in the area have been dated to more than 30,000 years ago, i.e. at least 20,000 years before the end of the last ice age. The highlands in the interior of Papua-Newguinea also have were the focus of a completely independent invention of agriculture, a type of gardening - and this at a time when in Europe mammoth was still hunted and the last Neanderthal people were still alive.
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The Papuan and the Austronesian language families red: the Papuan language family (around 750 languages). yellow: Austronesian languages in the part of the world shown here (the family overall ranges much further than can be shown here, from Madagascar to Hawaii). white: Australian languages. grey: dry land during te lowest sea level during the last 70,000 years (which was between 20,0000 and 10,000 years ago when the grey area was dry land - see sea level chart below). |
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Sea levels over the past 240,000 years Measured on the Huon peninsula (marked in the map below with a red asterisk *). The grey area in the map further above indicates the land area when the sea level was lowest and there was a land-bridge between Papua-Newguinea and Australia. orange: indicates the time when Papua-Newguinea is thought to have been by anatomically modern humans, an event that started certainly before 30,000 years ago and perhaps as early as 60,000 years ago.
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The distribution today between the Austronesian and Papuan languages indicates that the Papuan languages were there earlier (probably much earlier) and that the Austronesian-speakers arrived later. This is also confirmed by other evidence, e.g. by genetics and archaeology. The Austronesian speakers tended to stay in coastal areas and never penetrated into the mountainous interior of the island.
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Papuan and Austronesian language groups on the islands off the eastern coast of Papua-Newguinea yellow triangles: Austronesian languages. red diamonds: Papuan languages. The Huon peninsula (see diagram below)
Map adapted from ref. 1. |
Relationship of the Austronesian (Western Oceanic sub-group) languages as established by Dunn et al:
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Some Austronesian languages classified On the left: On the right: The two trees show a high degree of agreement (drawings adapted from ref. 1). |
After testing their new method on a group of the Austronesian languages and discovering that it produced useable results, the linguists (ref. 1) applied it to a group of languages that had been classified as Papuan but that could not be further related to each other by conventional methods.. Each of these languages seems to have developed in isolation for rather a long time and their vocabulary had developed too far apart for any relationship to be established by conventional linguistic means.
Using the new methods and focusing on the grammatical and other structural differences of these language, a new picture emerged. The languages now show different degrees of relationships to each other that had not been visible before. Moreover, the languages show a remarkably high degree of geographical patterning by island group - which can only mean that they have developed over a long period in their present location and in relative isolation.
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Some Papuan languages classified Applying the same cladistic method as had been used on the Australasian languages to Papuan languages that could not before be clearly linked also produce a clear result as shown on thee left (drawing adapted from ref. 1). |
The new method with these results has shown great promise and will undoubtedly now be applied to many other language groups that have given trouble in their classification, including the Andamanese language family.
1. Dunn M., Terrill A., Reesink G., Foley R.A. and Levinson S.C. 2005. "Structural Phylogenetics and the Reconstruction of Ancient language History," Science 309:2072-2075 (see also our Appendix P)
2. Bright W. (ed.). 1992. International Encyclopaedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press, Oxford
3. Chappell J., and Shackleton N.J. 1986. "Oxygen isotopes and sea level." Nature 324:137-140
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