Alor-Pantar Languages: Origins and Theoretical Impact

该研究项目由 PI Gary Holton 指导，是欧洲科学基金会 EUROCORES 计划 EuroBABEL 下构思的大型国际合作项目的美国部分。完整的 EuroBABEL 项目是来自三个国家（包括美国、荷兰和英国）的研究人员的合作。这个特殊项目的重点是印度尼西亚东南部阿罗-潘塔群岛非南岛语系的语言史前史。阿罗-潘塔尔语是印度尼西亚新几内亚岛以外仅有的两组非南岛语系语言之一；印度尼西亚的其余语言属于南岛语系。代词的比较表明阿罗-潘塔尔语言和相距约 1000 公里的新几内亚语言之间存在亲缘关系。直到最近，15 至 20 种阿罗潘塔尔语言仍然是印度尼西亚记录最少的语言之一，但过去十年中实地工作的激增带来了大量新语言数据。该项目将带来新的和最近收集的数据来研究阿罗尔-潘塔尔语言的语言起源和最终亲缘关系问题。分析的一个主要组成部分将是使用比较方法重建祖先的原始阿罗尔-潘塔尔语言。为了实现这一目标，该项目将与 ESF 合作伙伴密切合作，收集最近收集的词汇和语法文档，并将通过对尚未记录的阿罗班塔语言的调查来补充这些文档。这些数据将用于推断语言历史中发生的声音变化。来自声音变化的证据反过来将使研究人员能够建立遗传亚群，并评估与新几内亚语言的潜在遗传关系。分析的另一个组成部分是对地名的研究，地名代表了阿洛-潘塔尔语言中最濒危和记录最少的语言知识领域之一。地名的结构和分布提供了对史前时期的深入了解，通常反映了史前的聚落模式。地名还提供非语言历史的间接证据，包括过去的气候变化，因为命名实践反映了人类在固定时间点与环境的相互作用。该项目编制的GIS（地理信息系统）数据库将有助于未来对人口迁移和环境变化及其与语言变化关系的跨学科研究。

This research project, directed by PI Gary Holton, is the US portion of a larger international collaboration that was conceived under the European Science Foundation's EUROCORES Programme, EuroBABEL. The full EuroBABEL project is a collaboration of researchers from three countries, including the US, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. This particular project focuses on the linguistic prehistory of the non-Austronesian languages the of Alor-Pantar archipelago of southeastern Indonesia. The Alor-Pantar languages represent one of only two groups of non-Austronesian languages in Indonesia outside of the island of New Guinea; the remaining languages of Indonesia belong to the Austronesian family. A comparison of pronouns suggests a genetic relationship between the Alor-Pantar languages and New Guinea languages located some 1000 km distant. Until very recently the 15-20 Alor-Pantar languages have remained among the least well-documented languages of Indonesia, but a surge in field work efforts over the past decade has resulted in a wealth of new language data. This project will bring new and recently-collected data to bear on the question of the linguistic origins and ultimate genetic relationships of the Alor-Pantar languages.A major component of the analysis will be the reconstruction of the ancestral Proto Alor-Pantar language using the comparative method. To accomplish this the project will work closely with ESF partners to assemble recently-collected lexical and grammatical documentation and will supplement these with surveys of still-undocumented Alor-Pantar languages. These data will be used to infer sound changes which have occurred in the history of the languages. Evidence from sound changes will in turn allow the researchers to establish genetic subgroups and to evaluate potential genetic relationships with the languages of New Guinea.An additional component of the analysis is the study of placenames, which represent one of the most highly endangered and least documented domain of linguistic knowledge in the Alor-Pantar languages. The structure and distribution of placenames provide insight into prehistory, often reflecting pre-historic settlement patterns. Placenames also provide indirect evidence of non-linguistic history, including past climate changes, since naming practices reflect human interaction with the environment at a fixed point in time. The GIS (geographic information systems) database compiled by this project will facilitate future inter-disciplinary investigations of population migrations and environmental changes and their relationships to language change.