Language as a Window on Prehistory

语言是人类生存的基础，但人们对语言如何随着时间的推移而变化，以及人类社会的其他方面如何随着语言而变化，知之甚少。语言是研究历史的重要工具。虽然考古学和遗传学也是研究文化变迁的宝贵方法，但在许多地区，语言为过去的接触、迁徙和文化变迁提供了保存较好的证据。以前的大量研究表明，语言会随着时间的推移而变化，而且是有规律的。人们也知道，说话者会使他们的语言适应他们的文化，语言反映了文化的各个方面，比如礼貌。然而，为了理解为什么世界上的7000种语言看起来是这样的，理清语言和社会之间的关系是至关重要的。本研究以澳洲原住民的语言为个案研究。这个研究小组以前的工作已经导致了工具和数据库的发展，用于探索语言关系，研究文化和语言系统的变化如何同时发生。研究人员将利用这些研究工具进一步阐明语言是如何变化的，利用现有的数据开发新的工具来调查语言的历史。具体来说，研究人员将研究这些语言的声音、单词和含义的模式，以揭示它们是如何随着时间而变化的。澳大利亚语言是这类研究的理想选择，因为在欧洲人定居之前，澳大利亚各民族的人口规模和政治复杂性相似，而且现有材料的语料库也相当可观。这项研究将补充这些材料，并使用统计和比较工具检验关于语言关系的假设。这将使研究人员能够在旧材料中识别新语言，并完善语言变化的知识。资助工作的一个重要组成部分是让学生参与前沿研究，包括语言学和统计方法方面的培训。

Language is fundamental to being human, but very little is known about how language changes over time or how other aspects of human society may change in concert with language. Language is a crucial tool for investigating the past. While archaeology and genetics are also invaluable ways to investigate how cultures have changed, in many areas, language provides better preserved evidence for past contacts, migrations, and cultural change. A great deal of previous work has shown that languages change over time, and that they do so in regular ways. It is also known that speakers adapt their languages to their cultures, and that languages reflect aspects of culture such as politeness. However, in order to understand why the world's 7000 languages look the way they do, untangling the relationships between language and society is crucial.This research uses the languages of Aboriginal Australia as a case study. Previous work by this research group has resulted in the development of tools and databases for exploring language relationships and studying how change in cultural and language systems may happen together. The researchers will utilize these research tools to shed further light on how languages change, using the existing data to develop new tools for investigating language history. Specifically, the investigators will study the patterns of sounds, words, and meanings in these languages to uncover how they have changed over time. Australian languages are ideal for such studies because of the similar population sizes and political complexity of the groups in the period before European settlement, as well as the sizable corpus of existing material. This study will add to this material and test hypotheses about language relationships using statistical and comparative tools. This will allow researchers to identify new languages in old materials as well as refine knowledge of how languages change. A substantial component of the grant work involves including students in cutting-edge research, including training in linguistics and statistical methods.