Alexander D. Smith 🏝
@austronesianist.com
Austronesian & Austro-Tai linguistics || Fudan University (复旦大学) || PhD: University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa || Editor: OLSP & PALI || he/him. https://linktr.ee/austronesianist
Reposted by Alexander D. Smith 🏝
Confs: 35th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society
Confs: 35th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society
The Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS) invites scholars to submit abstracts for the 35th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS 35), to be held at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, from 3 - 5 June 2026. The conference will be in the form of a hybrid event, although we strongly encourage in-person participation.
SEALS 35 welcomes contributions addressing linguistic issues related to languages spoken in Southeast Asia, particularly those from
dlvr.it
November 18, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Confs: 35th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society
My new approach to MP subgrouping, which argues that the rapid expansion of PMP was followed by the emergence of a complex dialect network rather than large traditional subgroups, is out now.
Awesome new @diachronica.bsky.social article by @austronesianist.com: "Late Malayo-Polynesian: A new model of Austronesian linguistic relations"
www.jbe-platform.com/content/jour...
www.jbe-platform.com/content/jour...
August 3, 2025 at 1:57 PM
My new approach to MP subgrouping, which argues that the rapid expansion of PMP was followed by the emergence of a complex dialect network rather than large traditional subgroups, is out now.
My colleague mitcho and I have a new preprint available that looks at the very interesting passive voice constructions in the Lebo' Vo' Kenyah language, spoken at Long San, Sarawak, Malaysia.
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...
ling.auf.net
January 9, 2025 at 2:43 AM
My colleague mitcho and I have a new preprint available that looks at the very interesting passive voice constructions in the Lebo' Vo' Kenyah language, spoken at Long San, Sarawak, Malaysia.
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008...
Reposted by Alexander D. Smith 🏝
Proto Austronesian *kuCux 'louse' became Proto Malayo-Polynesian *kutu, a form preserved in Indonesian as "kutu" before being borrowed into English and spread across English langauge elementary schools as "cooties"
December 11, 2024 at 5:38 PM
Proto Austronesian *kuCux 'louse' became Proto Malayo-Polynesian *kutu, a form preserved in Indonesian as "kutu" before being borrowed into English and spread across English langauge elementary schools as "cooties"
Reposted by Alexander D. Smith 🏝
One thing I found interesting is when a language lost a word and then reinvented it. Take the Proto Austronesian for bear, the animal acd.clld.org/cognatesets/...
They lost the word during the migration to the Phillipines and then made new one when they found bears in Borneo.
They lost the word during the migration to the Phillipines and then made new one when they found bears in Borneo.
ACD - Austronesian Comparative Dictionary Online -
Cognateset *Cumay
acd.clld.org
December 1, 2024 at 8:34 AM
One thing I found interesting is when a language lost a word and then reinvented it. Take the Proto Austronesian for bear, the animal acd.clld.org/cognatesets/...
They lost the word during the migration to the Phillipines and then made new one when they found bears in Borneo.
They lost the word during the migration to the Phillipines and then made new one when they found bears in Borneo.
Reposted by Alexander D. Smith 🏝
My first ever journal paper! Terrified but so excited to see it in print. This is for the underdogs: Batanic langs & oblique case. Turns out the oblique does more and the locative does less than we think! Happy to bring Batanic to the fore of Austronesian linguistics! doi.org/10.1515/stuf...
(DM 📄)
(DM 📄)
December 2, 2024 at 9:41 PM
My first ever journal paper! Terrified but so excited to see it in print. This is for the underdogs: Batanic langs & oblique case. Turns out the oblique does more and the locative does less than we think! Happy to bring Batanic to the fore of Austronesian linguistics! doi.org/10.1515/stuf...
(DM 📄)
(DM 📄)
Did Austronesian people use boats with outriggers to sail from Taiwan to the Philippines? Some linguists have argued that the innovation of the outrigger was critical for crossing the strait and was responsible for the expansion of Austronesian people and their languages out of Taiwan.
November 26, 2024 at 8:24 AM
Did Austronesian people use boats with outriggers to sail from Taiwan to the Philippines? Some linguists have argued that the innovation of the outrigger was critical for crossing the strait and was responsible for the expansion of Austronesian people and their languages out of Taiwan.
Does Rukai have glides? I think it does. Check out my comment article "The Reality of Rukai Glides" in Theoretical Linguistics: doi.org/10.1515/tl-2.... (DM for a pre-print if you don't have access)
The reality of Rukai Glides
Prosodic details offer valuable insight into the phonology of languages, but prosodically-grounded analysis alone does not reveal the whole picture. Benjamin Macaulay’s prosodic study into Rukai provi...
doi.org
November 19, 2024 at 12:45 AM
Does Rukai have glides? I think it does. Check out my comment article "The Reality of Rukai Glides" in Theoretical Linguistics: doi.org/10.1515/tl-2.... (DM for a pre-print if you don't have access)