Origins of linguistic zonation in the Australian Alps. part 1 - Huygens' principle

Christopher Illert

Journal of Applied Statistics, 2005, vol. 32, issue 6, 625-659

Abstract: The hitherto poorly recorded boundaries of extinct traditional south-east-Australian Aboriginal languages can now be redetermined with greatly improved precision using an entropy-maximizing phonetic-signature calculated from existing data sources, including old word-lists and census forms, that have, until now, largely been considered informationally worthless. Having thus determined traditional Aboriginal language zones to a previously unimaginable degree of geographical precision, it is argued that these boundaries should not be viewed merely as a static 'snapshot' but, instead, as the end-product of a knowable dynamic process (Gillieron wave propagation) governed by well-known physical rules (such as Huygens' principle and Snell's Law) and operating over 'deep' time-scales more familiar to the archaeologist than the linguist. Although this initial study is limited to south-eastern Australia, the new methodology provides the first real hope of obtaining a detailed understanding of language dispersal throughout the entire continent over the past 60,000 years.

Keywords: Lexical signature; deep linguistics; Gillieron wave propagation; Huygens'; Principle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1080/02664760500079258

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