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Time and place in the prehistory of the Aslian languages

Dunn, Michael ; Kruspe, Nicole LU and Burenhult, Niclas LU (2013) In Human Biology 85(1-3). p.383-399
Abstract
The Aslian language family, located in the Malay Peninsula and southern Thai Isthmus, consists of four distinct branches comprising some 18 languages. These languages predate the now dominant Malay and Thai. The speakers of Aslian languages exhibit some of the highest degree of phylogenetic and societal diversity present in Mainland Southeast Asia today, among them a foraging tradition particularly associated with locally ancient, Pleistocene genetic lineages. Little advance has been made in our understanding of the linguistic prehistory of this region or how such complexity arose. In this article we present a Bayesian phylogeographic analysis of a large sample of Aslian languages. An explicit geographic model of diffusion is combined with... (More)
The Aslian language family, located in the Malay Peninsula and southern Thai Isthmus, consists of four distinct branches comprising some 18 languages. These languages predate the now dominant Malay and Thai. The speakers of Aslian languages exhibit some of the highest degree of phylogenetic and societal diversity present in Mainland Southeast Asia today, among them a foraging tradition particularly associated with locally ancient, Pleistocene genetic lineages. Little advance has been made in our understanding of the linguistic prehistory of this region or how such complexity arose. In this article we present a Bayesian phylogeographic analysis of a large sample of Aslian languages. An explicit geographic model of diffusion is combined with a cognate birth-word death model of lexical evolution to infer the location of the major events of Aslian cladogenesis. The resultant phylogenetic trees are calibrated against dates in the historical and archaeological record to infer a detailed picture of Aslian language history, addressing a number of outstanding questions, including (1) whether the root ancestor of Aslian was spoken in the Malay Peninsula, or whether the family had already divided before entry, and (2) the dynamics of the movement of Aslian languages across the peninsula, with a particular focus on its spread to the indigenous foragers. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Austroasiatic languages, Aslian Languages, Phylogeography, Historical Linguistics
in
Human Biology
volume
85
issue
1-3
pages
383 - 399
publisher
Wayne State University Press
external identifiers
  • wos:000327554500017
  • scopus:85026453450
ISSN
1534-6617
project
Language, cognition and landscape: understanding cross-cultural and individual variation in geographical ontology
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003)
id
4508c07d-9bb9-4f57-aa73-f14da8491c2f (old id 3241189)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 07:04:05
date last changed
2023-09-05 10:32:27
@article{4508c07d-9bb9-4f57-aa73-f14da8491c2f,
  abstract     = {{The Aslian language family, located in the Malay Peninsula and southern Thai Isthmus, consists of four distinct branches comprising some 18 languages. These languages predate the now dominant Malay and Thai. The speakers of Aslian languages exhibit some of the highest degree of phylogenetic and societal diversity present in Mainland Southeast Asia today, among them a foraging tradition particularly associated with locally ancient, Pleistocene genetic lineages. Little advance has been made in our understanding of the linguistic prehistory of this region or how such complexity arose. In this article we present a Bayesian phylogeographic analysis of a large sample of Aslian languages. An explicit geographic model of diffusion is combined with a cognate birth-word death model of lexical evolution to infer the location of the major events of Aslian cladogenesis. The resultant phylogenetic trees are calibrated against dates in the historical and archaeological record to infer a detailed picture of Aslian language history, addressing a number of outstanding questions, including (1) whether the root ancestor of Aslian was spoken in the Malay Peninsula, or whether the family had already divided before entry, and (2) the dynamics of the movement of Aslian languages across the peninsula, with a particular focus on its spread to the indigenous foragers.}},
  author       = {{Dunn, Michael and Kruspe, Nicole and Burenhult, Niclas}},
  issn         = {{1534-6617}},
  keywords     = {{Austroasiatic languages; Aslian Languages; Phylogeography; Historical Linguistics}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1-3}},
  pages        = {{383--399}},
  publisher    = {{Wayne State University Press}},
  series       = {{Human Biology}},
  title        = {{Time and place in the prehistory of the Aslian languages}},
  volume       = {{85}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}