Article published in:
Journal of Historical Linguistics
Vol. 4:1 (2014) ► pp. 84–132

Reconstructing the history of languages in northwest New Britain

Inheritance and contact

| The Australian National University
William Thurston (1982, 1987, 1989, 1992, 1994) analyzes the history of the languages of the northwest area of New Britain. This history has included much contact among the area’s languages, all of which are Oceanic Austronesian with the exception of the Papuan language Anêm. Thurston, however, took the position that all linguistic speciation is brought about by language contact, especially by language shift. In this paper, the comparative method is applied to Thurston’s (and others’) data to reconstruct a partial history of the languages of the area, exemplifying how the comparative method may be applied in contact situations. Reanalysis of his data shows that a number of his conclusions about the histories of the area’s Austronesian languages are wrong, but validates his claim that language shift is manifested in copied specialist vocabulary, a conclusion that is important for historical contact linguistics, as such cases may provide few or no other clues that shift has occurred.
Keywords: comparative method, language shift, Papuan, Oceanic Austronesian, contact-induced change
Published online: 12 May 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.4.1.03ros
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
2002 Language Contact in Amazonia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Aitchison, Jean.
1981 Language Change: Progress or Decay? London: Fontana.Google Scholar
Bamler, Georg.
1900 Bemerkungen zur Grammatik der Tami-Sprache. Zeitschrift für afrikanische und ozeanische Sprachen 51.198–253.Google Scholar
Blong, Russell J.
1982 The Time of Darkness. Canberra: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
Blust, Robert A.
1998 A Note on Higher-Order Subgroups in Oceanic. Oceanic Linguistics 371.182–188. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bugenhagen, Robert D.
1995 A Grammar of Mangap-Mbula: An Austronesian Language of Papua New Guinea. (= Pacific Linguistics C-101.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
2007a A Grammar of the Tuam language. Ms, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa.Google Scholar
2007b Phonology of the Mutu-Tuam Language. Ms, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa.Google Scholar
Bugenhagen, Robert D. & Salme Bugenhagen.
2007a Mutu Dictionary. Ms, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa.Google Scholar
Bugenhagen, Salme & Robert D. Bugenhagen.
2007b Ro Ta Ipiyooto Sua Mbula Uunu: Mbula-English Dictionary. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Papua New Guinea Branch.Google Scholar
Capell, Arthur.
1943 The Linguistic Position of South-Eastern Papua. Sydney: Australasian Medical Publishing Company.Google Scholar
1962 A Linguistic Survey of the South-Western Pacific. Nouméa: South Pacific Commission.Google Scholar
Chowning, Ann.
1973 Milke’s ‘New Guinea Cluster’: The Evidence from Northwest New Britain. Oceanic Linguistics 121.189–243. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chowning, Ann,
1978 Changes in West New Britain Trading Systems in the Twentieth Century. Mankind 111.296–307.Google Scholar
Chowning, Ann.
1986 Refugees, Traders and Other Wanderers: The Linguistic Effects of Population Mixing in Melanesia. FOCAL II: Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics ed. by Paul Geraghty, Lois Carrington & S. A. Wurm, 407–434. (= Pacific Linguistics C-94.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Clark, Stephen & Dawn Clark.
1995 Sio Lexicon. Ms, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Papua New Guinea Branch, Ukarumpa.Google Scholar
Cooke, Robin J. S.
1981 Eruptive History of the Volcano at Ritter Island. In Robert W. Johnson, ed., 115–123.
Counts, David R.
1969 A Grammar of Kaliai-Kove. (= Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications 6.) Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Dutton, Tom & Darrell Tryon, eds.
1994 Language Contact and Change in the Austronesian World. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
D’Jernes, Jeffrey & Lucille D’Jernes.
n.d. Arop-Lokep Lexicon. Ms, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Papua New Guinea Branch, Ukarumpa.
D’Jernes, Lucille.
2002 Arop-Lokep. In John Lynch, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley, eds., 249–269. Richmond: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
Enfield, Nicholas J.
2003 Linguistic Epidemiology: Semantics and Grammar of Language Contact in Mainland Southeast Asia. London: RoutledgeCurzon.Google Scholar
Evans, Bethwyn.
1995 Reconstructing Object Markers in Oceanic Languages. BA Honors sub-thesis, Australian National University.Google Scholar
2003 A Study of Valency-Changing Devices in Proto Oceanic. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Foley, William A.
1986 The Papuan Languages of New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Steve.
2008 Bariai Dictionary (First Corrected Edition), West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Steve & Peirce Baehr.
2005 Bariai Grammar Sketch. (= Data Papers in Papua New Guinea Languages 49.) Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Garrett, Andrew.
2006 Convergence in the Formation of Indo-European Subgroups: Phylogeny and Chronology. Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages ed. by Peter Forster & Colin Renfrew, 139–151. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Geraghty, Paul.
1983 The History of the Fijian Languages. (= Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication 19.) Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Goulden, Rick J.
1996 The Maleu and Bariai Languages of West New Britain. In Malcolm Ross, ed., 63–144.
Harding, Thomas G.
1967 Voyagers of the Vitiaz Strait: A Study of a New Guinea Trade System. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Heggarty, Paul.
2007 Linguistics for Archaeologists: Principles, Methods and the Case of the Incas. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 171.311–340. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hooper, Robin.
1985 Proto-Oceanic *qi. Austronesian Linguistics at the 15th Pacific Science Congress ed. by Andrew Pawley & Lois Carrington, 141–167. (= Pacific Linguistics C-88.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Johnson, Robert W., ed.
1981 Cooke-Ravian Volume of Vulcanological Papers. (= Geological Survey of Papua New Guinea Memoir 10.) Port Moresby: Geological Survey of Papua New Guinea.Google Scholar
Johnston, Raymond L.
1980 Language, Communication and Development in New Britain, ed. by Raymond L. Johnston. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Kerswill, Paul.
1996 Children, Adolescents, and Language Change. Language Variation and Change 81.177–202. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kirch, Patrick V.
1997 The Lapita Peoples: Ancestors of the Oceanic World. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
2000 On the Road of the Wings: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lichtenberk, František.
1985 Possessive Constructions in Oceanic Languages and Proto-Oceanic. Austronesian Linguistics at the 15th Pacific Science Congress ed. by Andrew Pawley & Lois Carrington, 93–140. (= Pacific Linguistics C-88.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Lilley, Ian.
2002 Lapita and Type Y Pottery in the KLK Site, Siassi, Papua New Guinea. Fifty Years in the Field: Essays in Honor and Celebration of Richard Shutler Jr’s Archaeological Career ed. by Stuart Bedford, Christophe Sand & David Burley, 79–90. (= New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph 25.) Auckland: New Zealand Archaeological Association.Google Scholar
2004 Trade and Culture History across the Vitiaz Strait, Papua New Guinea: The Emerging Post-Lapita Coastal Sequence. A Pacific Odyssey: Archaeology and Anthropology in the Western Pacific. Papers in Honor of Jim Specht ed. by V. J. Attenbrow & R. Fullagar, 89–96. (= Records of the Australian Museum, Supplement 29.) Sydney: The Australian Museum.Google Scholar
2007 The Evolution of Sio Pottery. In Jim Specht & Val Attenbrow, eds., 227–244.
Lilley, Ian & Jim Specht.
2007 Revised Dating of Type X Pottery, Morobe Province. In Jim Specht & Val Attenbrow, eds., 217–226.
Lincoln, Peter C.
1976a Rai Coast Austronesian Language Survey Data, in Two Parts. Mimeo, University of Hawai‘i.Google Scholar
1976b Rai Coast Survey: First Report. Mimeo, University of Hawai‘i.Google Scholar
n.d. Basics of Gitua Language. Typescript, University of Hawai‘i.
Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley.
2002 The Oceanic Languages. Richmond: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
McPherson, Naomi,
2007 Myth, Primogeniture and Long Distance Trade-Friends in Northwest New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Oceania 771.129–157. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mennis, Mary R.
2006 A Potted History of Madang: Traditional Culture and Change on the North Coast of Papua New Guinea. Aspley, Queensland: Lalong Enterprises.Google Scholar
Palfreyman, W. David, D. A. Wallace & Robin J. S. Cooke.
1981 Langila Volcano: Summary of Reported Eruptive History, and Eruption and Periodicity from 1961 to 1972. In Robert W. Johnson, ed., 125–133.
Pawley, Andrew.
2002 Grammatical Categories and Grammaticisation in the Oceanic Verb Complex. Paper presented at AFLA XI, Cornell University.
2006 Explaining the Aberrant Austronesian Languages of Southeast Melanesia: 150 Years of Debate. Journal of the Polynesian Society 1151.215–218.Google Scholar
2008 Where and When was Proto Oceanic Spoken? Linguistic and Archaeological Evidence. Language and Text in the Austronesian World: Studies in Honour of Ülo Sirk ed. by Yury A. Lander & Alexander K. Ogoblin, 47–71. (= Studies in Austronesian Linguistics 06), Lincom Europa. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
2009 The Role of the Solomon Islands in the First Settlement of Remote Oceania: Bringing Linguistic Evidence to an Archaeological Debate. Austronesian Historical Linguistics and Culture History: A Festschrift for Robert Blust ed. by Alexander Adelaar & Andrew Pawley, 515–540. (= Pacific Linguistics 601.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Ray, Sidney H.
1926 A Comparative Study of the Melanesian Island Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Reid, Lawrence A.
1987 The Early Switch Hypothesis: Linguistic Evidence for Contact between Negritos and Austronesians. Man and Culture in Oceania 31.41–59.Google Scholar
1989 Arta, Another Philippine Negrito Language. Oceanic Linguistics 281:47–74. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1994a Possible Non-Austronesian Lexical Elements in Philippine Negrito Languages. Oceanic Linguistics 331.37–72. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1994b Unravelling the Linguistic Histories of Philippine Negritos. In Tom Dutton & Darrell Tryon, eds., 443–475.
2007 Historical Linguistics and Philippine Hunter-Gatherers. Piakandatu ami Dr. Howard P. Mc Kaughan ed. by Loren Billings & Nelleke Goudswaard, 6–32. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines & SILPhilippines.Google Scholar
Ross, Malcolm.
1988 Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia (= Pacific Linguistics C-98.). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
1994 Areal Phonological Features in North Central New Ireland. In Tom Dutton & Darrell Tryon, eds., 551–572.
1996a Contact-Induced Change and the Comparative Method: Cases from Papua New Guinea. The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change ed. by Mark Durie & Malcolm Ross, 180–217. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
1996b On the Genetic Affiliations of the Oeeanic Languages of Irian Jaya. Oceanic Linguistics 351.259–271. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ross, Malcolm, ed.
1996 Studies in Languages of New Britain and New Ireland. Vol. 1: Austronesian languages of the North New Guinea Cluster in Northwestern New Britain. (= Pacific Linguistics C-135.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Ross, Malcolm.
1998 Possessive-like Attribute Constructions in the Oceanic Languages of Northwest Melanesia. Oceanic Linguistics 371.234–276. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2001a Is There an East Papuan Phylum? Evidence from Pronouns. The Boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian Linguistics in Honour of Tom Dutton ed. by Andrew Pawley, Malcolm Ross & Darrell Tryon, 301–321. (= Pacific Linguistics 514.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
2001b Proto Oceanic *i, *qi and *-ki. Studies in Austronesian Morphology in Honour of Byron W. Bender ed. by Joel Bradshaw & Kenneth L. Rehg, 259–278. (= Pacific Linguistics 519.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
2003a Diagnosing Prehistoric Language Contact. Motives for Language Change ed. by Raymond Hickey, 174–198. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2003b Talking about Space: Terms of Location and Direction. In Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley & Meredith Osmond, eds., 221–284.
2006 Metatypy. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics ed. by Keith Brown, Vol. 81, 95–99. 2nd ed. Oxford: Elsevier. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2007 Calquing and Metatypy. Journal of Language Contact: Thema 11.116–143. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2008 Wild Plants of the Coastal Strand. In Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley & Meredith Osmond, eds., 129–172.
2013 Diagnosing Contact Processes from their Outcomes: The Importance of Life Stages. Journal of Language Contact 61.5–47. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ross, Malcolm & A°shild Næss.
2007 An Oceanic Origin for Äiwoo, the Language of the Reef Islands? Oceanic Linguistics461.456–498. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ross, Malcolm, Andrew Pawley & Meredith Osmond, eds.
1998 The Lexicon of Proto Oceanic: The Culture and Environment of Ancestral Oceanic Society. Vol.1: Material Culture. (= Pacific Linguistics C-152.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
2003 The Lexicon of Proto Oceanic: The Culture and Environment of Ancestral Oceanic Society. Vol. 2: The Physical World. (= Pacific Linguistics 545.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
2008 The Lexicon of Proto Oceanic: The Culture and Environment of Ancestral Oceanic Society. Vol. 3: Plants. (= Pacific Linguistics 599.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
2011 The Lexicon of Proto Oceanic: The Culture and Environment of Ancestral Oceanic Society. Vol. 4: Animals. (= Pacific Linguistics 621.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Salisbury, R. F.
1962 Notes on Bilingualism and Language Change in New Guinea. Anthropological Linguistics 4:7.1–13.Google Scholar
Sato, Hiroko.
2007 Possession in Kove. Paper at Conference on Oceanic Linguistics (COOL7), Nouméa.
Specht, Jim.
2005 Revisiting the Bismarcks: Some Alternative Views. Papuan Pasts: Cultural, Linguistic and Biological Histories of Papuan-Speaking Peoples ed. by Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Jack Golson & Robin Hide, 235–288. (= Pacific Linguistics 572.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
2007 Small Islands in the Big Picture: The Formative Period of Lapita in the Bismarck Archipelago. Oceanic Explorations: Lapita and Western Pacific Settlement ed. by Stuart Bedford, Christophe Sand & Sean P. Connaughton, 51–70. (= Terra Australis 26.) Canberra: ANUe Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Specht, Jim & Val Attenbrow, eds.
2007 Archaeological Studies of the Middle and Late Holocene, Papua New Guinea. (= Technical Reports of the Australian Museum 20.) Sydney: The Australian Museum. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Spriggs, Matthew J. T.
1997 The Island Melanesians. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Stebbins, Tonya N.
2009 The Papuan Languages of the Eastern Bismarcks: Migration, Origins and Connections. Discovering History through Language: Papers in Honour of Malcolm Ross ed. by Bethwyn Evans, 223–243. (= Pacific Linguistics 605.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Summerhayes, Glenn R.
2000 Lapita Interaction. (= Terra Australis 15.) Canberra: Archaeology, Natural History Publications & the Centre for Archaeological Research, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
2001 Lapita in the Far West: Recent Developments. Archaeology in Oceania 361.53–63. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2003 The Rocky Road: The Selection and Transport of Admiralties Obsidian to Lapita Communities. Australian Archaeology 571.135–142. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Thomason, Sarah Grey.
2001 Language Contact: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
2008 Social and Linguistic Factors as Predictors of Contact-Induced Change. Journal of Language Contact: Thema 21.42–56. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2010 Contact Explanations in Linguistics. The Handbook of Language Contact ed. by Raymond Hickey, 31–47. Oxford: Wiley–Blackwell. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Thurston, William R.
1976 The Phonology of Anem: A Non-Austronesian Language of West New Britain. ETD Collection for McMaster University. McMaster University Master’s thesis.Google Scholar
1982 A Comparative Study of Anêm and Lusi. (= Pacific Linguistics B-83.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
1987 Processes of Change in the Languages of North-Western New Britain. (= Pacific Linguistics B-99.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
1989 How Exoteric Languages Build a Lexicon: Esoterogeny in West New Britain. VICAL 1, Oceanic Languages: Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics ed. by Ray Harlow & Robin Hooper, 555–579. Auckland: Linguistic Society of New Zealand.Google Scholar
1992 Sociolinguistic Typology and Other Factors Effecting Change in Northwestern New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Culture Change, Language Change: Case Studies from Melanesia ed. by Tom Dutton, 123–139. (= Pacific Linguistics C-120.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
1994 Renovation and Innovation in the Languages of North-Western New Britain. In Tom Dutton & Darrell Tryon, eds, 573–609.
1996a Amara: An Austronesian Language of Northwestern New Britain. In Malcolm Ross, ed., 197–248.
1996b The Bibling Languages of Northwestern New Britain. In Malcolm Ross, ed., 249–392.
2007 Describing Languages and Ethnographic Fieldwork. Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic Indulgence in Memory of Terry Crowley ed. by Jeff Siegel, John Lynch & Diane Eades, 15–25. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Weinreich, Uriel.
1963 Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Winford, Donald.
2005 Contact-Induced Changes: Classification and Processes. Diachronica 221.373–427. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zielinski, G. A., P. A. Mayewski, L. D. Meeker, S. Whitlow, M. S. Twickler, M. Morrison, D. A. Meese, A. J. Gow & R. B. Alley.
1994 Record of Volcanism since 7000 B. C. from the GISP2 Greenland Ice Core and Implications for the Volcano-Climate System. Science 2641.948–952. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

SPECHT, JIM, ROBIN TORRENCE & KEN MULVANEY
2021. Petroglyphs and place: complex histories at four sites in New Britain. Archaeology in Oceania 56:3 ► pp. 196 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.