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Language As a Time Machine

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Language As a Time Machine Language as a Time Machine Dr Marian Klamer LANGUAGE AS A TIME MACHINE Language is the primary tool used by human beings to communicate with each other, allowing them to co-operate, explore their similarities and sometimes even bridge their differences. Yet it can also become a means to dive deep into the past, acting as a time machine that helps to re-construct the history of geographical areas and the populations inhabiting them. Dr Marian Klamer at Leiden University specialises in the study of languages in their every aspect, with the aim of opening a window onto the past of areas of the world that have very few historical records. The ways in which human beings Dr Klamer spent her childhood in a small communicate have constantly evolved village in the jungle, inhabited by people throughout the years. Yet, regardless of from different clans. ‘Every clan had whether individuals communicate in person, their own language, so several Papuan or through phone, e-mail, text message or languages where spoken in the village, pigeon post, all verbal and written exchanges alongside Papuan Malay that was used as between them are made possible by the a lingua franca; at home we spoke Dutch. existence of languages. Perhaps because of this early multi-lingual environment I have always been curious Languages allow us to express complex about how people use languages, and how thoughts, abstract ideas and feelings to one different languages are structured,’ she says. another, which would be difficult to convey using mere gestures and arbitrary sounds. Her early fascination with languages Roughly 6,500 languages are spoken in prompted her to study linguistics later in the world today, but about a third of these life, specialising in Austronesian and Papuan have less than 1000 speakers. In addition to languages, many of which are at risk of their practical value in our daily lives, when extinction due to their limited number analysed, languages can help researchers of speakers. Dr Klamer has conducted map the history of populations and the extensive linguistics research in Eastern geographical areas they inhabit. The field Indonesia, trying to re-construct parts of its of historical linguistics does exactly this, history by analysing its multitude of spoken by studying language as a system: in its languages. ‘I compare structures and words grammatical structure, meanings, sounds of languages to find out how they are related and unique characteristics. to each other, to reconstruct their common history and find out in which ways they have Dr Marian Klamer at Leiden University in the influenced each other through contact,’ she Netherlands is an expert in linguistics and explains. ‘This provides information about has devoted her career to the complex task the history of speakers and the possible of researching Austronesian and Papuan migrations and types of contacts they had in languages, spoken in areas that have very the past.’ few historical records. Dr Klamer’s interest in these languages dates back to her Tracing History Through Language childhood years in southwest Papua, a region of Indonesia populated by a vast variety Travelling back in time through the laborious of cultural groups. ‘Part of my roots lie in analysis of languages is not an easy task. southwest Papua, where my parents worked Languages comprise complex patterns as a missionary and a nurse,’ she explains. related to grammar, vocabulary and ‘From my parents, I learned that the colourful phonetic characteristics. Historical linguists multitude of people, cultures and languages use vast amounts of language-specific is a miracle that we must cherish.’ data to try and trace a language’s ‘family tree’, which points to other languages it WWW.SCIENTIA.GLOBAL ‘I compare structures and words of languages to find out how they are related to each other, to reconstruct their common history and find out in which ways they have influenced each other through contact. This provides information about the history of speakers and the possible migrations and types of contacts they had in the past.’ derived from or was influenced by at some languages, while languages spoken by neighbouring Islands. In total, there are point in history. Generally, this process is minorities in other parts of the world have about 1200 Austronesian and 800 Papuan carried out over relatively long periods of much less associated research. During her languages, which together make up one time, in collaboration with archaeologists, undergraduate studies, Dr Klamer became third of all languages spoken on Earth. They ethnologists, anthropologists and population interested in the possible application of include big languages such as Indonesian, geneticists. Western models of linguistics to the study of Malay and Javanese, as well as small ones, non-Western languages. ‘I learned a lot about spoken by less than 1000 people. Over 90% There are two main ways in which languages formal theoretical models of “universal” of the languages spoken in Indonesia have can influence each other: through vertical structures of human language,’ she tells us. no written tradition, and could hence leave transmission when languages have a ‘I found it interesting to see that at the time no trace once they become extinct. common ancestor, or through horizontal these models were almost entirely based transmission, when languages borrow words on Western languages and I was curious The first lists of Austronesian words were from other languages they come into contact whether they could also be used to describe collected by Dutch explorers Willem with. Even names of cities or villages can help the structure of non-Western languages.’ Schouten and Jacob Lemaire. Dr Klamer to retrace the history of a geographical area is continuing this Dutch tradition, focusing – if we think of village names such as Katwijk The first time to test this was when Dr her studies on languages spoken in eastern in Holland: the wijk part of that name derives Klamer carried out fieldwork to study a Indonesia. ‘I believe that theorising about the from the Latin word Vicus (i.e. village) and language spoken on the island of Sumba, in structure of human language will work better dates back to the Roman times. Indonesia. ‘That was a short field study and if we take into account data from a wide I was still a student at the time, but it made range of non-European languages,’ she says. Words derived from other languages can me realise how little work was done on the ‘But also, these languages are fragile cultural help to identify past connections between hundreds of (unwritten) languages of eastern heritages under pressure from Indonesian, different clans or populations, as well as Indonesia, and that I wanted to contribute to and they need to be fostered.’ the nature of these connections. Linguistics documenting and describing some of them,’ research can be even more interesting when she explains. Eastern Indonesia – a Multi-Language applied to languages spoken in places with Region very few traces of the past, shedding light Languages spoken in Indonesia are upon their history and the relationships Austronesian and Papuan languages. Languages spoken in Indonesia today between different populations. Austronesian languages are spoken in a amount to approximately 700. Most of these variety of places, including Madagascar, have no related historical records and have Austronesian and Papuan languages the Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand, never been studied before. At the moment, Hawaii and Easter Island. Papuan languages Indonesia’s linguistic diversity is being Linguists have often studied Western are spoken in Papua New Guinea and other threatened by the widespread adoption of WWW.SCIENTIA.GLOBAL Indonesian, the national language. This is particularly true in eastern As indigenous written sources are lacking, Western visitors collected Indonesia, where many parents are choosing to teach their children the only sources of history relative to these islands during Colonial Indonesian instead of their native language. times. Dr Klamer has carried out research analysing the language of the different populations residing in Pantar and Alor, discovering links As part of her job, Dr Klamer travels to Indonesia, speaking with its between them that point to past interactions between some of these inhabitants and trying to learn more about their language and cultural communities. For instance, she found that a middle area on the map heritage. ‘I love studying languages, and I love working with people appeared to be cut off from the rest of the language family for a certain in the field,’ she says. ‘Indonesia is really a wonderful country with a period in the past, as the languages spoken there had more influence truly amazing richness of peoples and cultures. People are always from outsiders than the languages elsewhere on the islands. She also incredibly hospitable and welcoming, and always happy to share their discovered that the population speaking a language called Alorese, knowledge.’ the only Austronesian language on the two islands, was likely to have settled on Pantar about 700 years ago, originally coming from Flores, an Speaking with local populations, Dr Klamer learnt that many children island further east. Her studies were able to retrace some of the history no longer speak their parents’ language. This means that in one or of these two islands and their communities. This is of great value for two generations many of these languages could become extinct. historical reconstruction purposes, and it also helps researchers create Linguistic studies, such as those conducted by Dr Klamer, might help to more detailed genealogical groupings and ‘language fingerprints’, preserve them, by developing orthography and compiling dictionaries, which could help to compare similar languages in future. so speakers can write in their own language and the language can be used in schools. This would allow children to have a better grasp of A Glance at the Future their parents’ language, while offering speakers of these languages a means through which to write down their traditional stories, songs and Over the past 15 years or so, Dr Klamer’s research has mainly focused histories.
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