- Historical Linguistics, East Asian Studies, Morphology (Languages And Linguistics), Austronesian Languages, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, and 11 moreHistory of Taiwan, Austronesian linguistics, East Asian Archaeology, Tai-Kadai Linguistics, Language Classification, Taiwan Archaeology, Old Chinese, Origins of Agriculture, Comparative Linguistics, Diachronic Linguistics (Or Historical Linguistics), and Phonetics and Phonologyedit
This presentation will introduce examples of word-family contacts between p(h)- and xw- words in Middle Chinese. Probable cognate forms in Tibeto-Burman and Austronesian languages argue that the fricatives evolved out of the stops. The... more
This presentation will introduce examples of word-family contacts between p(h)- and xw- words in Middle Chinese. Probable cognate forms in Tibeto-Burman and Austronesian languages argue that the fricatives evolved out of the stops. The facts will be interpreted as evidence of a change from OC *p(h) to MC xw-. The context of the change will be discussed.
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The Old Chinese reconstruction system in Baxter and Sagart (2014) relies in part on dialectal forms, particularly from the Mǐn dialects, and on Chinese loans to neighboring languages, primarily Vietic, Hmong-Mien and Kra-Dai. Some of... more
The Old Chinese reconstruction system in Baxter and Sagart (2014) relies in part on dialectal forms, particularly from the Mǐn dialects, and on Chinese loans to neighboring languages, primarily Vietic, Hmong-Mien and Kra-Dai. Some of these forms were not included in the book. We give here a full list of such forms, whether included in the book or not.
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The principal Chinese word for `blood' is xue 4 , Middle Chinese xwet 2. Some proposed OC reconstructions for this word have been: Karlgren *xiwet, Li *xiwet, Baxter *hwit, Starostin (1995) *shwi#-k > swhi# t. This word has been treated... more
The principal Chinese word for `blood' is xue 4 , Middle Chinese xwet 2. Some proposed OC reconstructions for this word have been: Karlgren *xiwet, Li *xiwet, Baxter *hwit, Starostin (1995) *shwi#-k > swhi# t. This word has been treated as a genetic cognate of TB *s-hyw´y `blood' (Benedict 1972: 51 # 222). Starostin (1995) further proposed a connection with a form labeled 'Proto-North-Caucasian' he himself reconstructed: this is discussed in Sagart (1995b). 'Blood' is a basic notion: it is part of the Swadesh 100 word-list. Perhaps for this reason, the possibility of borrowing has never been seriously envisioned. However, as I have shown (Sagart 1995a; 1995c; 1996), influence of Chinese on its southern and western neighbors, the MY and TB languages, has been extremely intimate and intense, and lexical borrowing from Chinese into TB and MY has gone well beyond the limits of cultural vocabulary. In this paper I will present evidence showing that the TB forms subsumed under Benedict's reconstruction *s-hyw´y `blood' are such borrowings from Chinese. I will first discuss the pronunciation of the OC word for 'blood', and then turn to the comparative aspect of the question.
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A review of Baxter (1992) A handbook of Old Chinese phonology
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A 250-concept list was established for the purposes of a lexically-based study of Sino-Tibetan phylogeny (Sagart et al. 2019). This paper supplies the Old Chinese version of the list, in the Old Chinese reconstruction of Baxter and Sagart... more
A 250-concept list was established for the purposes of a lexically-based study of Sino-Tibetan phylogeny (Sagart et al. 2019). This paper supplies the Old Chinese version of the list, in the Old Chinese reconstruction of Baxter and Sagart 2014. Chinese words attested in pre-Han times were selected based on their meaning as given in major lexica such as the Hànyǔ Dà Zìdiǎn. At times more than one OC item was found to match a concept in the list without it being clear which of the terms was the oldest. In such cases all the candidates were retained. As a result, the Old Chinese version ofthe list contains 301 words.
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This paper presents the treatment of the Old Chinese *s- prefix in the Baxter-Sagart system of Old Chinese reconstruction. The main functions of the prefix are to increase the valency of verbs and to derive oblique deverbal nouns. The... more
This paper presents the treatment of the Old Chinese *s- prefix in the Baxter-Sagart system of Old Chinese reconstruction. The main functions of the prefix are to increase the valency of verbs and to derive oblique deverbal nouns. The phonetic evolutions to Middle Chinese of *s- with different kinds of OC root initials are discussed. Two salient features of the proposed system are (1) that *s- plus plain sonorants go to MC s- or sr-, and (2) that s- preceding voiced obstruents becomes voiced. Problems within a competing proposal by Mei Tsu-lin, in which OC *s- devoices both sonorants and voiced obstruents, are pointed ou
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Discusses aspiration-conditioned lowering of tonal onsets in Chinese dialects
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Two unpublished documents from a 2011 seminar on Chinese dialect phylogeny combined into a single pdf file; I am putting it online because the tree is occasionally being referred to in current literature on Chinese dialect... more
Two unpublished documents from a 2011 seminar on Chinese dialect phylogeny combined into a single pdf file; I am putting it online because the tree is occasionally being referred to in current literature on Chinese dialect classification. At the time, only the hand-drawn tree at the top was distributed to the audience. The accompanying text was meant as a canvas to aid in oral presentation, which explains its unpolished aspect. Exclusively cosmetic changes were made to the text, and the hand-drawn tree was added, immediately before putting it online on Academia. I am no longer certain that the evidence putting Waxiang and Caijia into a single branch is strong. Some lexical evidence for Wu being a bona fine group can now be cited. There still is no evidence that Gan is a valid group.
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An introduction to Chinese word families.
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A brief sketch of Old Chinese phonology in the system of Baxter and Sagart (2014)
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Although Hakka and Nanxiong differ in their mode of devoicing, the dialect of Nanxiong city has a split treatment of the entire zhuoshang category remarkably similar to Hakka in its lexical incidence. This suggests that they share a... more
Although Hakka and Nanxiong differ in their mode of devoicing, the dialect of Nanxiong city has a split treatment of the entire zhuoshang category remarkably similar to Hakka in its lexical incidence. This suggests that they share a recent common ancestor , from which the zhuoshang split was inherited. It is argued that the set of zhuoshang words which have tone 1 in standard Hakka and tone 1 or 2 in Nanxiong had tone 4 in the parent language. It is also argued that this common ancestor had not yet merged its quanzhuo initials with the voiceless aspirated initials. The ancestral tone 4 then merged with tone 1 in Hakka, and with tone 1 or 2 in Nanxiong and devoicing occurred separately in Nanxiong and Hakka.
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作者主张上古汉语除了一般所构拟的三套塞音声母（全清、次清、全浊）外，还有三套鼻冠音声母；这些声母的鼻冠音成分来自鼻音前缀N-和m-。本文集中在N-前缀上。前缀N-具有将及物动词转换为不及物动词的作用，并在转换的过程中使词根的全清塞音声母变为全浊。鼻冠音声母后来消失了，只留下中古汉语中著名的现象：清声母的及物动词与浊声母的不及物动词成对出现。然而，只有词根声母为全清时才会使声母浊化；带冠鼻音的次清声母并没有受到受影响，... more
作者主张上古汉语除了一般所构拟的三套塞音声母（全清、次清、全浊）外，还有三套鼻冠音声母；这些声母的鼻冠音成分来自鼻音前缀N-和m-。本文集中在N-前缀上。前缀N-具有将及物动词转换为不及物动词的作用，并在转换的过程中使词根的全清塞音声母变为全浊。鼻冠音声母后来消失了，只留下中古汉语中著名的现象：清声母的及物动词与浊声母的不及物动词成对出现。然而，只有词根声母为全清时才会使声母浊化；带冠鼻音的次清声母并没有受到受影响， 它们发展为中古汉语次清塞音。作者还提出语音变化的时间层次。并且对早期借至苗瑶语的汉语借词的证据进行了讨论。不及物的N-前缀与个别藏缅语言的不及物鼻音前缀表现出对应关系──尽管书面藏语的a-ch’ung（也是个鼻音前缀）与此N-前缀因功能不同而无法对应。 同时，本文提出汉藏语言的不及物鼻音前缀可溯源至原始汉藏语的不及物m-前缀。中古汉语不及物动词浊音化与藏缅语所谓“词根声母交替”（同样为及物动词读清声母与不及物动词读浊声母的对立）在形式和功能上的相似引发了藏缅语此类对立的来源的问题。汉语的对立既已证明来自于鼻音前缀，则藏缅语的交替似亦不无可能。不过，这个问题暂时不下定论。
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... LAURENT SAGART ECOLE DES HAUTES TUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES ... language,1 and that evidence for both the roots and the affixes under discussion may be found ... in the last term, one recognizes a close analog of the designation of the... more
... LAURENT SAGART ECOLE DES HAUTES TUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES ... language,1 and that evidence for both the roots and the affixes under discussion may be found ... in the last term, one recognizes a close analog of the designation of the west in Irish, Church Slavonic ...
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abstract in paper.
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... 92. mail □ : verb suffix, "together", "along with", /kia] tiu]. piangh mail aih tiu] tsiaul moih/ □ fDO^^CJ DDjj^. "they all hid the girls" ; /kil ts'iub Iam3 mail ai4 moU... more
... 92. mail □ : verb suffix, "together", "along with", /kia] tiu]. piangh mail aih tiu] tsiaul moih/ □ fDO^^CJ DDjj^. "they all hid the girls" ; /kil ts'iub Iam3 mail ai4 moU tsu3 hi4 k'onh/^iKj^^Clj^réJk. ... man! t'en] kong]/<*s£jfcj "dawn, before sunrise". 77. ...
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... Il parle également le dialecte de Gao'an, chef-lieu d'un district contigu, ou il a résidé trois ans. ... ancien des dialectes du sud: "rivière", "fils", "épouse de fils", "dormir", se... more
... Il parle également le dialecte de Gao'an, chef-lieu d'un district contigu, ou il a résidé trois ans. ... ancien des dialectes du sud: "rivière", "fils", "épouse de fils", "dormir", se lever", "coude"; le vocabulaire caractéristique des dialectes gan est représenté par les mots pour "bébé", "long ...
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The author argues that in addition to the three series of stops commonly reconstructed (voiceless unaspirated; voiceless aspirated; voiced), Old Chinese possessed three prenasalized series, in which the prenasal element was a prefix N-.... more
The author argues that in addition to the three series of stops commonly reconstructed (voiceless unaspirated; voiceless aspirated; voiced), Old Chinese possessed three prenasalized series, in which the prenasal element was a prefix N-. This prefix changed transitive verbs to intransitives, voicing a voiceless unaspirated obstruent root initial in the process. Prenasalization later disappeared, leaving behind the well-known Middle Chinese alternation between transitive verbs with voiceless obstruent initials and intransitive verbs with voiced obstruent initials. Voicing, however, occurred only if the root initial was a voiceless unaspirated obstruent: prenasalized voiceless aspirated initials were not affected: they evolved to Middle Chinese aspirated stops. A chronology of phonetic changes is proposed. Evidence from early Chinese loans to Miao-Yao is discussed. The intransitive N- prefix is shown to correspond to intransitive nasal prefixes in various Tibeto-Burman languages; while the connection to Written Tibetan a-ch’ung, also a nasal prefix, is regarded as spurious on functional grounds. It is proposed that the intransitive nasal prefixes in Sino-Tibetan languages go back to a proto-Sino-Tibetan intransitive m- prefix. The formal and functional similarity between intransitive voicing in Middle Chinese and the alternation known as “alternation of root initial” in Tibeto-Burman languages, which likewises contrasts transitive verbs with voiceless initials and intransitive verbs with voiced initials, raises the issue of the origin of this alternation in the Tibeto-Burman languages: considering that the Chinese alternation has turned out to have its origin in a nasal prefix, is the same also true of the Tibeto-Burman alternation? The question is for the moment left open.
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The present paper illustrates some of the major known morphological processes of Old Chinese-roughly, the language of the Chinese classical texts of the Zhou E dynasty (llth-3rd centuries BCE). To speak of morphological processes in Old... more
The present paper illustrates some of the major known morphological processes of Old Chinese-roughly, the language of the Chinese classical texts of the Zhou E dynasty (llth-3rd centuries BCE). To speak of morphological processes in Old Chinese may surprise some ...
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An eulogy for Jerry Norman. It describes Norman's great contributions to Chinese linguistics and outlines the basis of my disagreement with Norman's view of Chinese phylogeny.
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This paper describes a candidtae for a uniquely shared phonological innovation of the Tibeto-Burman languages: the merger of two Sino-Tibetan word endings reflected by Old Chinese as *-ʔ and *-k. This merger has been verified in 21... more
This paper describes a candidtae for a uniquely shared phonological innovation of the Tibeto-Burman languages: the merger of two Sino-Tibetan word endings reflected by Old Chinese as *-ʔ and *-k. This merger has been verified in 21 Tibeto-Burman languages, including 8 reconstructed meso-languages, chosen to represent the diversity of Tibeto-Burman. An alternative explanation is discussed and rejected on the strength of Austronesian cognates.
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work document collecting results of 2013-2016 fieldwork by the authors
This paper responds to all of Malcolm Ross's criticisms, published in Language and Linguistics 13.6 (2012), of Sagart's numeral-based model of Austronesian phylogeny (Sagart 2004). It shows that a part of these criticisms is addressed to... more
This paper responds to all of Malcolm Ross's criticisms, published in Language and Linguistics 13.6 (2012), of Sagart's numeral-based model of Austronesian phylogeny (Sagart 2004). It shows that a part of these criticisms is addressed to an invented version of Sagart's model, while another appeals to questionable principles. It points out various errors of fact and interpretation. It also criticizes Ross's own account of the evolution of early Austronesian numerals, showing that it has little explanatory power, fails to account for phonological irregularities, and cannot explain the observed nesting pattern among numeral isoglosses. Finally, this paper shows that Tsouic, a Formosan subgroup which contradicts Ross's phylogeny, is valid.
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This paper finds origins for the three Kra-Dai tones in the segmental endings of Proto-Southern Austronesian, the parent language of Kra-Dai and Malayo-Polynesian. The Kra-Dai A category originates in sonorant endings (vowels,... more
This paper finds origins for the three Kra-Dai tones in the segmental endings of Proto-Southern Austronesian, the parent language of Kra-Dai and Malayo-Polynesian. The Kra-Dai A category originates in sonorant endings (vowels, semi-vowels, nasals, liquids) and in Proto-Austronesian *-H2, reconstructed by Tsuchida 1976; the B category in *-R and in *-X, a hitherto not reconstructed ending reflected ash in Amis and in the Bisayan language Aklanon; the C category, in Proto-Austronesian *-H1, reconstructed by Tsuchida. The tonal outcomes of *-s and *-S are described. Kra-Dai sonorant endings in tone C are argued to come from hypothetical Austronesian prototypes in which a sonorant ending was followed by *-s, a suffix of unknown function. Although the present model does not require Kra-Dai to be a daughter of Proto-Austronesian, the building blocks for Kra-Dai tones are shown to be in place during the Formosan phase of Austronesian phonological history.
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This paper is a response to criticism by Winter in an earlier issue of this jour-nal of Sagart’s discussion of the higher phylogeny of Austronesian. I giveexamples outside of Austronesian of compound numerals being affected byseveral... more
This paper is a response to criticism by Winter in an earlier issue of this jour-nal of Sagart’s discussion of the higher phylogeny of Austronesian. I giveexamples outside of Austronesian of compound numerals being affected byseveral apparently irregular changes; argue that the number of changes pro- posed in my Austronesian model is realistic; explain the order of establish-ment of disyllabic numerals as depending on two factors, cardinal order andnumber of competitors; give Austronesian examples showing that the driveto disyllabism does apply to morphologically complex forms; and ascribe thelimited similarities between the phylogenies of Blust and Ross to chance.Finally, I claim that the only realistic explanation of the nesting of six relatedisoglosses is a sequence of innovations.
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Malcom Ross’s new theory of early Austronesian phylogeny is examined. Idescribe evidence that *-en served to mark verbs in undergoer voice, patientsubject, in a language ancestral to Puyuma, as well as evidence that *<in>occurs in some... more
Malcom Ross’s new theory of early Austronesian phylogeny is examined. Idescribe evidence that *-en served to mark verbs in undergoer voice, patientsubject, in a language ancestral to Puyuma, as well as evidence that *<in>occurs in some verbs in undergoer voice, patient subject perfective, in one socio-lect of Nanwang Puyuma. This evidence falsifies the claim that Puyuma reflects an early Austronesian stage at which *-en and *<in> had not yet been reinter- preted from nominalizers into voice markers. It also falsi
fies the phylogeny thattakes that putative innovation as its central event. A hypothetical scenario isoffered to account for the replacement of the *-en, *-an, and *Si- (or *Sa-) seriesof voice markers by the series now found in Puyuma independent verbs.
fies the phylogeny thattakes that putative innovation as its central event. A hypothetical scenario isoffered to account for the replacement of the *-en, *-an, and *Si- (or *Sa-) seriesof voice markers by the series now found in Puyuma independent verbs.
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This paper responds to recent criticism by Teng and Ross of a critique by Sagart of Ross‘s claim, based on Teng's grammar of Puyuma, that Puyuma has escaped the mechanism reinterpreting nominalisation into verbs and should therefore be... more
This paper responds to recent criticism by Teng and Ross of a critique by Sagart of Ross‘s claim, based on Teng's grammar of Puyuma, that Puyuma has escaped the mechanism reinterpreting
nominalisation into verbs and should therefore be considered a primary branch of Austronesian. While acknowledging that Teng and Ross have presented an interpretation of the ‘do N times’ verbs that removes a part of the ground for the UVP *-en suffix being reflected in Puyuma, this paper details points in Sagart’s original paper that Teng and Ross have avoided in their response regarding Tsouic lexical innovations and fossilised *-en in two Puyuma verbs. It documents the existence of inter-speaker differences in Puyuma sentences containing <in> and argues that <in> in those and other sentences is a perfective marker of finite verbs under competition from la, a marker of new situations with perfective interpretations. Finally it confirms the conclusion in Sagart’s paper that Puyuma has not escaped the reinterpretation of nominalisations into voice-marked verbs.
nominalisation into verbs and should therefore be considered a primary branch of Austronesian. While acknowledging that Teng and Ross have presented an interpretation of the ‘do N times’ verbs that removes a part of the ground for the UVP *-en suffix being reflected in Puyuma, this paper details points in Sagart’s original paper that Teng and Ross have avoided in their response regarding Tsouic lexical innovations and fossilised *-en in two Puyuma verbs. It documents the existence of inter-speaker differences in Puyuma sentences containing <in> and argues that <in> in those and other sentences is a perfective marker of finite verbs under competition from la, a marker of new situations with perfective interpretations. Finally it confirms the conclusion in Sagart’s paper that Puyuma has not escaped the reinterpretation of nominalisations into voice-marked verbs.
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This paper responds to all of Malcolm Ross’s criticisms, published in Language & Linguistics 13.6 (2012), of Sagart’s numeral-based model of Austronesian phylogeny (Sagart 2004). It shows that a part of these criticisms is addressed to an... more
This paper responds to all of Malcolm Ross’s criticisms, published in Language & Linguistics 13.6 (2012), of Sagart’s numeral-based model of Austronesian phylogeny (Sagart 2004). It shows that a part of these criticisms is addressed to an invented version of Sagart’s model, while another appeals to questionable principles. It points out various errors of fact and interpretation. It also criticizes Ross’s own account of the evolution of early Austronesian numerals, showing that it has little explanatory power, fails to account for phonological irregularities, and cannot explain the observed nesting pattern among numeral isoglosses. Finally, this paper shows that Tsouic, a Formosan subgroup which contradicts Ross’s phylogeny, is valid.
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Presents nineteen bodypart terms shared by Austronesian and either of Chinese and Tibeto-Burman, or both, with a descriptions of aspects of the sound correspondences.
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Genetic data for traditional Taiwanese (Formosan) agriculture is essential for tracing the origins on the East Asian mainland of the Austronesian language family, whose homeland is generally placed in Taiwan. Three main models for the... more
Genetic data for traditional Taiwanese (Formosan) agriculture is essential for tracing the origins on the East Asian mainland of the Austronesian language family, whose homeland is generally placed in Taiwan. Three main models for the origins of the Taiwanese Neolithic have been proposed: origins in coastal north China (Shandong); in coastal central China (Yangtze Valley), and in coastal south China. A combination of linguistic and agricultural evidence helps resolve this controversial issue. Results: We report on botanically informed linguistic fieldwork of the agricultural vocabulary of Formosan aborigines, which converges with earlier findings in archaeology, genetics and historical linguistics to assign a lesser role for rice than was earlier thought, and a more important one for the millets. We next present the results of an investigation of domestication genes in a collection of traditional rice landraces maintained by the Formosan aborigines over a hundred years ago. The genes controlling awn length, shattering, caryopsis color, plant and panicle shapes contain the same mutated sequences as modern rice varieties everywhere else in the world, arguing against an independent domestication in south China or Taiwan. Early and traditional Formosan agriculture was based on foxtail millet, broomcorn millet and rice. We trace this suite of cereals to northeastern China in the period 6000–5000 BCE and argue, following earlier proposals, that the precursors of the Austronesians, expanded south along the coast from Shandong after c. 5000 BCE to reach northwest Taiwan in the second half of the 4th millennium BCE. This expansion introduced to Taiwan a mixed farming, fishing and intertidal foraging subsistence strategy; domesticated foxtail millet, broomcorn millet and japonica rice; a belief in the sacredness of foxtail millet; ritual ablation of the upper incisors in adolescents of both sexes; domesticated dogs; and a technological package including inter alia houses, nautical technology, and loom weaving.
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After reviewing recent evidence from related disciplines arguing for an origin of the Austronesian peoples in northeastern China, this paper discusses the Proto-Austronesian and Old Chinese names of the millets, Setaria italica and... more
After reviewing recent evidence from related disciplines arguing for an origin of the Austronesian peoples in northeastern China, this paper discusses the Proto-Austronesian and Old Chinese names of the millets, Setaria italica and Panicum miliaceum. Partly based on linguistic data collected in Taiwan by the authors, proposed Proto-Austronesian cognate sets for millet terms are re-evaluated and the Proto-Austronesian sets are identified. The reasons for the earlier confusion among Old Chinese terms for the millets are explained: the Austronesian term for Panicum miliaceum and one of the Chinese terms for the same plant are shown to obey the sound correspondences between Proto-Austronesian and Chinese, earlier described, under a particular resolution of the phonological ambiguities in the oc reconstruction. Possession of the two kinds of millets (not just Setaria, as previously thought) places the pre-Austronesians in northeastern China, adjacent to the probable Sino-Tibetan homeland.
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This paper responds to the criticisms addressed by Robert A. Blust in his 2009 book to the lexical and phonological component of the Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian hypothesis (Sagart 2005). It describes two models of Austronesian origins: a... more
This paper responds to the criticisms addressed by Robert A. Blust in his 2009 book to the lexical and phonological component of the Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian hypothesis (Sagart 2005). It describes two models of Austronesian origins: a southern, rice-based, Austro-Tai or Austric model with a homeland in the Yangtze Valley, defended by Blust; and a northern, millet- and rice-based, Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian model with a source in northeastern China,
defended by the author. Recent findings in archaeology, paleobotany and human genetics supporting the Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian hypothesis are reviewed. Blust’s criticisms are then
responded to. His observations on individual lexical comparisons are discussed. His general criticisms on semantics, use of rare and obscure material, and usage of Austronesian ‘roots’ in
external comparison, are also addressed. The paper concludes that the phonological and lexical evidence for Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian is limited because of the time depth involved,
but robust, and that it agrees with evidence from other disciplines.
defended by the author. Recent findings in archaeology, paleobotany and human genetics supporting the Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian hypothesis are reviewed. Blust’s criticisms are then
responded to. His observations on individual lexical comparisons are discussed. His general criticisms on semantics, use of rare and obscure material, and usage of Austronesian ‘roots’ in
external comparison, are also addressed. The paper concludes that the phonological and lexical evidence for Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian is limited because of the time depth involved,
but robust, and that it agrees with evidence from other disciplines.
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The discovery of Liangdao Man, a skeleton C-14 dated to c. 6000 BCE, under a shell mound in Liang Island north of the Taiwan strait, and the sequencing by Ko et al. (2014) of its mitochondrial DNA, have brought new light on Austronesian... more
The discovery of Liangdao Man, a skeleton C-14 dated to c. 6000 BCE, under a shell mound in Liang Island north of the Taiwan strait, and the sequencing by Ko et al. (2014) of its mitochondrial DNA, have brought new light on Austronesian origins. ..
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An introduction to the main languages families of southeast and east Asia: Sino-Tibetan, Hmong-Mien, Austronesian, Kra-Dai and Austroasiatic, with an emphasis on the demographic effects of plant and animal domestications.
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The process of moving from collecting plants in the wild to cultivating and gradually domesticating them has as its linguistic corollary the formation of a specific vocabulary to designate the plants and their parts, the fields in which... more
The process of moving from collecting plants in the wild to cultivating and gradually domesticating them has as its linguistic corollary the formation of a specific vocabulary to designate the plants and their parts, the fields in which they are cultivated, the tools and activities required to cultivate them and the food preparations in which they enter. From this point of view, independent domestications of a plant can be expected to result in wholly independent vocabularies. Conversely, when
cultivation of a plant spreads from one population to another, one expects elements of the original vocabulary to spread with cultivation practices. This paper examines the vocabularies of rice in Asian languages for evidence of linguistic transfers, concluding that there are at least two independent vocabularies of rice in Asia. This suggests at least two independent starts of cultivation
and domestications of Asian rice.
cultivation of a plant spreads from one population to another, one expects elements of the original vocabulary to spread with cultivation practices. This paper examines the vocabularies of rice in Asian languages for evidence of linguistic transfers, concluding that there are at least two independent vocabularies of rice in Asia. This suggests at least two independent starts of cultivation
and domestications of Asian rice.
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The Yamnaya culture, ofen regarded as the bearer of the Proto-Indo-European language, underwent a strong population expansion in the late 4th and early 3rd millennia BCE. It suggests that the underlying reason for that expansion might be... more
The Yamnaya culture, ofen regarded as the bearer of the Proto-Indo-European language, underwent a strong population expansion in the late 4th and early 3rd millennia BCE. It suggests that the underlying reason for that expansion might be the then unique capacity to digest animal milk in adulthood. We examine the early Indo-European milk-related vocabulary to confrm the special role of animal milk in Indo-European expansions. We show that Proto-Indo-European did not have a specialized root for ‘to milk’ and argue that the IE root *h2melg̑- ‘to milk’ is secondary and post-Anatolian. We take this innovation as an indication of the novelty of animal milking in early Indo-European society. Together with a detailed study of language-specifc innovations in this semantic feld, we conclude that the ability to digest milk played an important role in boosting Proto-Indo-European demography.
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The commercially successful book by archaeologist Jean-Paul Demoule (Seuil, 2014) casts doubt on the existence of an ancestral language of the Indo-European family on the ground of criticisms directed at Indo-European linguistics, and at... more
The commercially successful book by archaeologist Jean-Paul Demoule (Seuil, 2014) casts doubt on the existence of an ancestral language of the Indo-European family on the ground of criticisms directed at Indo-European linguistics, and at historical linguistics in general. We show here that these criticisms are based on a biased documentation, and that they contain numerous errors and misinterpretations, of which we present a selection. We examine the potential alternatives to the idea of an ancestral language : pidginization, creolization, interactions within a Sprachbund, formation of mixed languages through prolonged mutual contact, and show that all fail to account for the verbal, nominal and pronominal inflections common to the various branches of the family. Finally, we reject the equation between Indo-European linguistics and racist ideologies. We reaffirm the scientific and non-ideological nature of Indo-European historical linguistics.
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Page 1. J. Child Lang. 8, 511-524. Printed in Great Britain Phonetic analysis of late babbling: a case study of a French child* BfiNfiDICTE DE BOYSSON-BARDIES, LAURENT SAGART AND NICOLE BACRI Laboratoire de Psychologie, CNRS (Received 13... more
Page 1. J. Child Lang. 8, 511-524. Printed in Great Britain Phonetic analysis of late babbling: a case study of a French child* BfiNfiDICTE DE BOYSSON-BARDIES, LAURENT SAGART AND NICOLE BACRI Laboratoire de Psychologie, CNRS (Received 13 June 1980) ...
Research Interests: Phonetics, Language Development, Linguistics, Humans, Child, and 3 moreMale, Infant, and Child Language
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Even more than the existence of a diversified Indo-European vocabulary of animal husbandry, the lack of a significant agricultural vocabulary (Kortlandt, 2009, and references therein), and especially of terms for specific domesticated... more
Even more than the existence of a diversified Indo-European vocabulary of animal husbandry, the lack of a significant agricultural vocabulary (Kortlandt, 2009, and references therein), and especially of terms for specific domesticated cereals, is a strong indication that the Proto-Indo-Europeans were not farmers, although they were probably contemporary, and in contact with, the expanding populations who introduced farming into Europe from Anatolia beginning in the 9th millennium BP. Recent work in population genetics by Haak et al. (2015) and Allentoft et al. (2015) argues that a massive migration of Yamnaya culture steppe hunters into the Corded Ware culture area in the period 3000-2500 BCE established a new population component, distinct from both palaeolithic hunter-gatherers and from farmers out of Anatolia, in northwestern Europe. They linked this migration with the spread of Indo-European languages in Europe. This fits well with the Steppe hypothesis of Indo-European origins. The Corded Ware culture can thus be equated with a node postdating the separation of Anatolian and probably of Tokharian in the Indo-European tree. Allentoft et al. further show that, alone in bronze age Europe, Yamnaya, Corded ware and Afanasievo burials exhibit significant levels of the Lactase Persistence phenotype, which allows adults to digest raw milk. We follow Allentoft et al. in assuming that this unusual ability provided Indo-European speakers with a demographic edge over contemporary farmer and hunter-gatherer populations, fueling their geographical expansion. We further argue that this facilitated the widespread replacement of farmer languages by Indo-European varieties, thus resolving the problem at the root of the farming/language theory. We support the reality of these views with an examination of the Indo-European dairying vocabulary, describing historical changes in the lexicon which testify to the growing importance of animal milk in early Indo-European society. We propose reinterpretations of selected etymologies among the grain-related Indo-European vocabulary, pointing out the lack of evidence for early knowledge of domesticated cereals. Finally we note the involvement of milk in Indo-Iranian religion and gather Greek textual evidence on milk-drinking among adult speakers of early Indo-Iranian languages.
Recent evidence from archaeobotany and human population genetics, accumulated in recent years, has brought support for a scenario, proposed earlier on linguistic evidence, whereby precursors of the Austronesians originate in north China... more
Recent evidence from archaeobotany and human population genetics, accumulated in recent years, has brought support for a scenario, proposed earlier on linguistic evidence, whereby precursors of the Austronesians originate in north China ca. 8500-7500 BP, in the mid-Huang He Valley neolithic (Cishan-Peiligang culture), out of which the Sino-Tibetan family also evolved. Translocation to Taiwan involved, first, an eastward expansion from the mid-Huang He to Shandong on the eastern seaboard (Beixin and Dawenkou cultures), followed after 6500 BP by a southward coastal expansion, passing the lower Yangtze/Hangzhou Bay rice neolithic (Hemudu culture), then reaching the Fuzhou basin (Tanshishan culture) and crossing to Taiwan ca. 5500 BP (Dabenkeng culture) (Sagart 2008). The extralinguistic evidence cited at the time included (a) reliance on foxtail millet as a staple, moreover imbued with religious status, in both north China and early Taiwan, and (b) ritual tooth ablation in Shandong, east-coast China and early Taiwan at dates corresponding to the proposed coastal expansion.
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Presentation at the SLE 2016 (Naples)
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This paper shows that the putative 'East Formosan' subgroup proposed in Blust (1999) on the basis of a sound change allegedly turning a voiced palatalized velar stop into an alveolar nasal, pays no attention to the geographical principle... more
This paper shows that the putative 'East Formosan' subgroup proposed in Blust (1999) on the basis of a sound change allegedly turning a voiced palatalized velar stop into an alveolar nasal, pays no attention to the geographical principle of conservation by the periphery, and to the need for phonetically natural sound changes in historical interpretations. It argues that the phoneme known as *j was a palatal nasal rather than a voiced palatalized velar stop, and proposes for it the new label *n y. With support from the history of the Chinese palatal nasal, it argues that *n y evolved to a sound combining nasality and friction, and that denasalisation of that sound occurred for lack of a prenasalized series in which it could be integrated. The paper also shows, based on an earlier proposal by Dahl, that the putative phoneme known as PAN *ñ, which competes with *n y for the palatal nasal slot in the PAN consonant system, arose no earlier than PMP, with an independent parallel development in the Formosan language Kanakanabu, when the outcome of the merger of PAN *niV and *NiV became palatalized. It concludes that reconstructing PAN by validating Dempwolff's PMP is a counter-productive strategy and advocates reconstructing PAN directly on Formosan evidence.
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It is argued that the Old Chinese pharyngealized consonants reconstructed in the Baxter-Sagart (2014) system were created out of Proto-Sino-Tibetan CVʕ- strings in which the same vowel occurred on both sides of a pharyngeal fricative:... more
It is argued that the Old Chinese pharyngealized consonants reconstructed in the Baxter-Sagart (2014) system were created out of Proto-Sino-Tibetan CVʕ- strings in which the same vowel occurred on both sides of a pharyngeal fricative: CViʕVi-. The same strings evolved to long vowels in the Kuki-Chin group through loss of the pharyngeal consonant. Statistical evidence is presented in support of a correlation between the Kuki-Chin vowel length and the Chinese pharyngealization contrasts, as originally proposed by Starostin. Beyond Sino-Tibetan, it is suggested that the word type distinction in PST: CViʕVi- (‘type A’) vs. C (‘type B’) results from a constraint against monomoraic monosyllables, as has been described for Austroasiatic by Zide and Anderson, and in Austronesian by Wolff.
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Keynote paper at NACCL 25, June 21-23, 2013, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Describes correspondences between the onsets of Chinese loanwords in Vietic, Lakkia andin the corresponding indigenous forms in Proto-Min.
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第30 屆全國聲韻學學術研討會 powerpoint.
台湾花莲二另一二年五月20-22日。
台湾花莲二另一二年五月20-22日。
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This powerpoint presentation accompanies the full paper of the same title presented at the 13-ICAL conference in Taipei, July 18-22, 2015 (see 'papers' section)
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This presentation outlines the parallel linguistic and agricultural movements that underlie the separation of Sino-Tibetan and Austronesian. It argues that the Chinese and Austronesian names for the three founder cereals: foxtail millet,... more
This presentation outlines the parallel linguistic and agricultural movements that underlie the separation of Sino-Tibetan and Austronesian. It argues that the Chinese and Austronesian names for the three founder cereals: foxtail millet, broomcorn millet and rice are relatable by sound correspondences (some of which are presented here for the first time).
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The Sino-Tibetan language family is one of the world's largest and most prominent families, spoken by nearly 1.4 billion people. Despite the importance of the Sino-Tibetan languages, their prehistory remains controversial, with ongoing... more
The Sino-Tibetan language family is one of the world's largest and most prominent families, spoken by nearly 1.4 billion people. Despite the importance of the Sino-Tibetan languages, their prehistory remains controversial, with ongoing debate about when and where they originated. To shed light on this debate we develop a database of comparative linguistic data, and apply the linguistic comparative method to identify sound correspondences and establish cognates. We then use phylogenetic methods to infer the relationships among these languages and estimate the age of their origin and homeland. Our findings point to Sino-Tibetan originating with north Chinese millet farmers around 7200 B.P. and suggest a link to the late Cishan and the early Yangshao cultures. Sino-Tibetan languages | human prehistory | East Asia | peopling | computer-assisted language comparison
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A clickable phylogenetic tree of Austronesian languages according to Sagart's presentation at 15ICAL, Olomouc, June-July 2021. Clicking on a node leads to a blog post detailing the innovations for a that node.