Reassessing the wider genetic affiliations of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages Item Type Book chapter Authors Robinson, Laura C.; Holton, Gary Citation Robinson, Laura C. and Gary Holton. 2012. Reassessing the wider genetic affiliations of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages. On the History, Contact and Classification of Papuan Languages, ed. by H. Hammarström and W. van den Heuvel, 59-87. (Special Issue of Language and Linguistics in Melanesia.) Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea. Download date 30/09/2021 10:10:40 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/1053 Language & Linguistics in Melanesia Special Issue 2012 Part I ISSN: 0023-1959 Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea ISSN: 0023-1959 Special Issue 2012 Harald Hammarström & Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.) History, contact and classification of Papuan languages Part One Language & Linguistics in Melanesia Special Issue 2012 Part I ISSN: 0023-1959 REASSESSING THE WIDER GENEALOGICAL AFFILIATIONS OF THE TIMOR- ALOR-PANTAR LANGUAGES Laura Robinson and Gary Holton University of Alaska, Fairbanks
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[email protected] Abstract The wider genealogical affiliations of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages have been the subject of much speculation. These languages are surrounded by unrelated Austronesian languages, and attempts to locate related languages have focused on Papuan languages 800 km or more distant. In this paper we examine three hypotheses for genealogical relatedness, drawing on both pronominal and especially lexical evidence. We rely in particular on recent reconstructions of proto-Alor-Pantar vocabulary. Of the hypotheses evaluated here, we find the most striking similarities between TAP and the West Bomberai family.