Course Description
Summary
There are approximately 2,000 languages spoken on the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and they tell us a story of impressive migrations, millennia of contact, and island resilience. We will explore this story by discussing the two primary language groups in the Pacific: the Austronesian language family and the non-Austronesian languages of New Guinea. Tracing two major migrations鈥攐ne that occurred over 50,000 years ago and one that occurred approximately 7,000 years ago鈥攚e鈥檒l consider how geography, time, and contact resulted in the Pacific鈥檚 linguistic diversity. Students will learn how we can use linguistic data to understand historical events and explore the cultural facets that shaped the languages of today. As the semester progresses and we march towards the present, we鈥檒l explore the challenges of more recent times, such as the impacts of colonialism, globalization, and climate change on Pacific languages. While we focus on the Pacific region, students will be encouraged to consider how concepts introduced in the course can be applicable to languages and linguistic study around the world.
