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Hi Yuko</div>
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I agree with Gary's comments, from an Australian English perspective. For me, 'the' refers to the language group, not any particular analysis, and analyses must always be ongoing and a work in progress by many scholars.</div>
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best</div>
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Bill</div>
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<span style="color: rgb(32, 31, 30);">Bill Palmer</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(32, 31, 30);">Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(32, 31, 30);">Lead Investigator, <i>OzSpace</i> project </span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30);">(</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; color: blue;"><u><a style="color: blue; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" target="_blank" href="https://ozspace.org/">https://ozspace.org/</a></u></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30);">)</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30);"><i>Landscape, language and culture in Indigenous Australia.</i></span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(32, 31, 30);">President, Australian Linguistics Society</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(32, 31, 30);"> </span></p>
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<span style="color: black;"><u><a style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="1" target="_blank" href="mailto:bill.palmer@newcastle.edu.au">bill.palmer@newcastle.edu.au</a></u></span></p>
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<span style="color: black;"><u><a style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="2" target="_blank" href="https://newcastle.edu.au/profile/firstname-lastname">newcastle.edu.au/profile/Bill-Palmer</a></u></span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(32, 31, 30);">College of Human & Social Futures</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(32, 31, 30);">The University of Newcastle<br>
University Drive, Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia</span></p>
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<b><i>Note:</i></b><i> I send emails whenever it's convenient for me. I don't expect you to respond or even read my emails outside your work hours.</i></p>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> An-lang <an-lang-bounces@anu.edu.au> on behalf of Gary Holton <holton@hawaii.edu><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, 22 September 2025 7:25 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> an-lang@anu.edu.au <an-lang@anu.edu.au> <an-lang@anu.edu.au><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [An-lang] Moving Blust’s Legacy Forward: Archiving for the Next Era</font>
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<div dir="auto">Yuko,</div>
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<div dir="auto">Maybe this is just a feature of American English, but I have a very different sense of the use of the definite article in titles such as “The Austronesian Languages.” The definiteness here signals that there is only one group of languages which
we label “Austronesian” (though one could presumably argue as to which languages should be included with that label). But it in no way limits the number of analyses of “the” Austronesian languages. Far from being canon, the existence of Bob’s book should in
no way discourage others from publishing comprehensive works on Austronesian—or simply disputing parts of Bob’s work. That is scholarship. And though Bob would of course argue any challenges vehemently, that is no reason to forgo the challenge. Respecting
a scholar’s work does not also require that work to go unchallenged. As an extremely prolific scholar, Bob provide much material to be debated. And so the work of Austronesian historical linguistics goes on. </div>
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<div dir="auto">As for the new ACD, there are many others better able to comment on this, but I believe the CLDF dataset is housed in a GitHub repository with version control. All changes can be viewed. Users can raise issues and then follow to see how they
are resolved. This seems to me to be a great improvement on the old html-based site, which had (has?) no way of tracking edits. Changes to the data on that site could happen without users ever being aware. I think the new ACD format has the potential to facilitate
the collaborative environment that you envision. </div>
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<div dir="auto">Anyway, I hope I’m not too far off base here — just thought it would be good for someone from UH respond. Thanks for raising these issues.</div>
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<div dir="auto">Gary</div>
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<div dir="ltr" class="x_gmail_attr">On Sun, Sep 21, 2025 at 13:56 Yuko Kitada <<a href="mailto:yukokitada@outlook.com">yukokitada@outlook.com</a>> wrote:<br>
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Dear Dr. Hugh Paterson III, dear AN-LANG colleagues,</div>
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Thank you, Dr. Hugh Paterson III, for your insightful perspective as an archivist on preserving the Wix site
<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; color:black"><u style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif"><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" id="x_m_1972413392636509108OWAbff261ef-9e5c-9b61-0a3f-375be7643ddc" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://blusthawaii.wixsite.com/blust__;!!PvDODwlR4mBZyAb0!RPrE61WgqqI6qQxf2EVdz4q7cJc-87o8tRNzR8S2ENSp_vgoGfHrZfN8_-5VlXd65Vrg9OaoQljHJXOIRa6n$" target="_blank" style="display:inline; margin:0px; min-width:0px; font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; color:black">(https://blusthawaii.wixsite.com/blust)</a></u></span> and
the Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD). I appreciate the suggestion to archive the site using WARC format for permanent storage and the emphasis on maintaining the integrity of Blust and Trussel’s original ACD
<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; color:black"><u style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif"><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" id="x_m_1972413392636509108OWA87917776-1b30-fcd4-5034-531c61df2db1" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/__;!!PvDODwlR4mBZyAb0!RPrE61WgqqI6qQxf2EVdz4q7cJc-87o8tRNzR8S2ENSp_vgoGfHrZfN8_-5VlXd65Vrg9OaoQljHJbhaeD0L$" target="_blank" style="display:inline; margin:0px; min-width:0px; font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; color:black">(https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/)</a></u></span> by
distinguishing it from the edited version <span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; color:black">
<u style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif"><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" id="x_m_1972413392636509108OWAf8057e94-1eeb-3b39-1f3b-28546980d24b" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://acd.clld.org/__;!!PvDODwlR4mBZyAb0!RPrE61WgqqI6qQxf2EVdz4q7cJc-87o8tRNzR8S2ENSp_vgoGfHrZfN8_-5VlXd65Vrg9OaoQljHJdMNjoAG$" target="_blank" style="display:inline; margin:0px; min-width:0px; font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; color:black">(https://acd.clld.org/)</a></u></span>.
The call for transparency in documenting changes aligns with concerns I and others, like Prof. Laurent Sagart, have raised about the need for clarity in ACD updates.</div>
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However, I respectfully question the need to preserve the Wix site, as I see no clear scholarly purpose for its continued existence. The site, created posthumously by individuals after Bob’s 2022 passing, consists primarily of a static list of publications
without links or substantial resources. This information is already accessible through Kaipuleohone or academic networks, rendering the Wix site redundant.</div>
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A scholarly field should not be dominated or give the impression of being monopolized by any single individual, but rather nurtured through collaboration within a community. The Wix site’s limited scope does not facilitate such collaboration and may contribute
to canonizing Bob’s work, which those of us who knew him—his passion for debate—would recognize as contrary to his scholarly spirit. I propose retiring the Wix site entirely and integrating its bibliographic content into Kaipuleohone, ensuring a transparent
and accessible archive that supports ongoing research by other scholars.</div>
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Moreover, I believe we need to critically reflect on how Bob’s legacy is presented, including the framing of his research approach. Bob’s body of work, such as
<i style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif">The Austronesian Languages</i> (2009), is quantitatively immense, but he was, like us, just one scholar among many. The article
<i style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif">the</i> and the absence of phrases like “issues on” or “a guide to studying Austronesian languages” in the title
<i style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif">The Austronesian Languages</i> suggest a definitive claim over the entire discipline, which risks overshadowing the field’s diversity. (While the title is a product of its time and cannot be changed now, one
might argue that had Bob or his community placed greater emphasis on collective scholarship, a less exclusive title could have been chosen, reflecting an oversight not solely of the individual but of the community.) For example, Adelaar and Himmelmann’s
<i style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif">The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar</i> (2005) and Adelaar and Schapper’s
<i style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif">The Oxford Guide to the Malayo-Polynesian Languages of Southeast Asia</i> (2024) carefully specify their regional or subgroup focus and leverage collaborative authorship to reflect the field’s breadth, whereas
Blust’s title implies a singular authority. This exclusivity, echoed in the Wix site and gestures like the 2024 ICAL moment of silence—held two years after Bob’s passing, despite an earlier farewell event—can signal to emerging scholars that Bob’s work is
an unchallengeable standard. Such a perception may cause other researchers to hesitate in pursuing or presenting novel findings, stifling bold new hypotheses. Those of us who knew Bob personally—his passion for debate, his openness to challenge—can guard against
absolutizing his views or deifying him. But what about new researchers entering Austronesian linguistics? Encountering the Wix site or a title like
<i style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif">The Austronesian Languages</i> as their introduction, they might perceive Bob’s work as an untouchable canon, limiting the field’s growth and diversity. The discovery of the Wix site has highlighted a tendency
toward exclusivity and a lack of humility within the Blust legacy community, which I hope we can address to foster a healthier, more collaborative academic environment, ensuring such issues do not arise again.</div>
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Regarding the ACD, I value a non-editable archival capture of Blust and Trussel’s original work at the University of Hawaiʻi
<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; color:black"><u style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif"><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" id="x_m_1972413392636509108OWA3e73ac58-9221-a22a-bb03-0db02a65ed18" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/__;!!PvDODwlR4mBZyAb0!RPrE61WgqqI6qQxf2EVdz4q7cJc-87o8tRNzR8S2ENSp_vgoGfHrZfN8_-5VlXd65Vrg9OaoQljHJbhaeD0L$" target="_blank" style="display:inline; margin:0px; min-width:0px; font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; color:black">(https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/)</a></u></span> and
appreciate the existence of additional archival copies elsewhere for preservation. However, I cannot support open, editable platforms where scholars freely add “layers” to the data, as these risk reducing scholarly work to an unverified “playground” and undermine
credibility. Honestly, I also cannot endorse the additions made by the current maintainers of the MPI site
<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; color:black"><u style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif"><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" id="x_m_1972413392636509108OWA412a794a-8f3d-cccf-9402-2a8fb2a942cc" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://acd.clld.org/__;!!PvDODwlR4mBZyAb0!RPrE61WgqqI6qQxf2EVdz4q7cJc-87o8tRNzR8S2ENSp_vgoGfHrZfN8_-5VlXd65Vrg9OaoQljHJdMNjoAG$" target="_blank" style="display:inline; margin:0px; min-width:0px; font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; color:black">(https://acd.clld.org/)</a></u></span>,
even if drawn from unpublished Blust materials, as their authenticity cannot be verified without clear evidence, such as photographic documentation. The current editable ACD lacks clear documentation of changes and merges new contributions with Blust’s original
work without distinction, which, as Dr. Paterson notes, deviates from scholarly transparency. Scholars seeking to reconstruct proto-forms or expand on Blust’s work should do so through peer-reviewed publications, which can then be compiled into individual
web-based lists if desired. This approach ensures rigor and maintains the integrity of the original ACD as a distinct scholarly artifact.</div>
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By retiring the Wix site and prioritizing peer-reviewed contributions, we can honor Bob’s legacy—his passion for rigorous debate—while fostering a collaborative and inclusive Austronesian linguistics community. I welcome further thoughts on retiring the Wix
site and building a healthier academic environment.</div>
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Best regards,</div>
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Yuko Kitada</div>
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