FWD: Inquiry: Use of term "Negrito" for Austronesian & Southeast Asian languages

[Yuphaphann Hoonchamlong]

>===== Original Message From Adelwisa A Weller <alagawel at umich.edu> =====
Please respond if you are familiar with this topic.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 15:39:35 -0400
From: Scott McGinnis <smcginnis at nflc.org>
To: councilnews-list at Glue.umd.edu
Subject: Inquiry: Use of term "Negrito" for Austronesian & Southeast Asian
    languages

For about two centuries, the term 'Negrito' has been used in English
as an (apparently vague) ethnic label for various peoples of southeast
Asia.  But I am interested in the use of this term as a language name.

Voegelin and Voegelin, in their 1977 survey of the world's languages,
report 'Negrito' as an alternative name for certain Austronesian
languages of the Philippines.  This use is repeated in the 1996
edition of the Ethnologue volume.  But I have very occasionally
encountered this term applied as a name to various unspecified
languages of the region.

So:

Is the label 'Negrito' in respectable use among specialists today as a
label for any language or languages at all?

If so, for which language or languages?

In any case, can anybody shed any light on the former use of this term
as a language name?

And can anybody cite any examples of the earlier use of this term as a
language name?

Please reply to me directly, and I'll post a summary to the list.


Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk <mailto:larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk>

Tel: (01273)-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
Fax: (01273)-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad

*******************************
Yuphaphann Hoonchamlong      |       yui at tu.ac.th
Department of Linguistics           |  http://www.tu.ac.th/~yui/
Thammasat University           | Thai Language Audio Resource Center:
Bangkok, Thailand 10200      |        http://thaiarc.tu.ac.th