Linguistic Histories in Asia and the Pacific

This course explores the human past – both recent and distant – of the Asia-Pacific region using the tools of language and linguistic analysis. The Asia-Pacific is renowned for its incredible linguistic diversity, and the languages that are spoken, written and signed in the region today hold many traces of past lives. This course introduces the principles and methods of historical linguistics used to reconstruct language histories, which are windows onto the social and cultural lives of past peoples and societies. Such language histories are a starting point for investigating narratives of the Asia-Pacific past using different lines of evidence from across different disciplines. Does evidence from historical linguistics, archaeology, population genetics, history, and anthropology tell similar or different stories about how people lived in the past? This question is explored through case studies from across Asia and the Pacific, such as the social and technological drivers of the expansions of large language families like Austronesian, Sino-Tibetan and Austroasiatic, the social and cultural factors shaping the many small language families present in New Guinea, and the social and political networks underpinning connections across South Asia and Wallacea. The research project allows students to explore in detail a case study of their choice, and so develop advanced skills in critical analysis of primary and secondary sources and in oral and written communication. Linguistic histories are key to understanding the Asia-Pacific past, and the dynamics of language across time and space are essential to understanding the contemporary Asia-Pacific world.