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Article published In:
Diachronica
Vol. 39:2 (2022) ► pp.193–225

Environmental factors affect the evolution of linguistic subgroups in Borneo

ORCID logo | The Chinese University of Hong Kong
| University of North Texas

This study investigates the relatedness and history of the Austronesian languages of Borneo, which is the third largest island in the world and home to significant linguistic diversity. We apply Bayesian phylogenetic dating methods to lexical cognate data based on four historical calibration points to infer a dated phylogeny of 87 languages. The inferred tree topology agrees with the mid and lower-level subgrouping proposals based on the classical comparative method, but suggests a different higher-level organization. The root age of the dated tree is shallower than the archaeological estimates but agrees with a hypothesis of a past linguistic leveling event. The inferred homelands of the major linguistic subgroups from a Bayesian phylogeographic analysis agree with the homeland proposals from archaeology and linguistics. The inferred homelands for four of the eight subgroups support the riverine homeland hypothesis whereby the major linguistic subgroups developed initially in communities situated along Borneo’s major rivers.

Keywords: Bayesian phylogenetics, homeland, Austronesian, Borneo
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Materials and methods
    • 2.1Data
    • 2.2Bornean Subgrouping from Smith (2017a)
    • 2.3Cognate detection
    • 2.4Bayesian phylogenetic dating
      • Lexical evolution model
      • Tree Prior
      • Calibration points
      • Monte-Carlo Markov chain settings
      • Topological constraints
    • 2.5Geographical reconstruction
    • 2.6Test of riverine hypothesis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Cognate detection
    • 3.2Network analysis
    • 3.3Dating
      • 3.3.1Tree topology accuracy
      • 3.3.2Effect of topological constraints on root age
      • 3.3.3Leave-one out prediction of calibration points
      • 3.3.4Priors only analysis
    • 3.4Test of geographical reconstruction methods
    • 3.5Riverine hypothesis test
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Subgrouping
    • 4.2Dating
    • 4.3Homeland inference
    • 4.4Riverine hypothesis and the dispersal of major subgroups
      • 4.4.1Malayic and Land Dayak
      • 4.4.2North Sarawak
      • 4.4.3Central Sarawak
      • 4.4.4Kayanic
      • 4.4.5Southwest Sabah and Northeast Sabah
      • 4.4.6Barito
      • 4.4.7Overall migration patterns
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 January 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.20024.smi
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