Fwd: South pacific language question

[Mark Hale]

Hi all,

The most up-to-date reference is, to my knowledge,

Geoffrey Nathan, 'Nauruan in the Austronesian language family',
Oceanic Linguistics 12 (1973): 479-501

And there is quite extensive, though (as usual with these volumes)
difficult to interpret data in
the reports of the German Südsee-Expedition (Hambruch 1914).

I realize that it is pretty standard to say that Nauruan is closely
related to the Micronesian languages,
but, frankly, I couldn't find a drop of evidence for this view when I
worked through the German materials
in some detail a few years ago. Could someone tell me which of the
defining characteristics of the
Micronesian branch Nauruan is supposed so share? In the absence of any
compelling linguistic evidence
(but maybe I'm wrong about that) I would be very hesitant about
expressing opinions on dispersal
timing.

Mark

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 4:58 PM, Bill Palmer
<Bill.Palmer at newcastle.edu.au> wrote:
> Hi Steve
>
> The linguistic evidence suggests Nauru was settled very early in the human occupation of Micronesia. It appears to be a first-order branch of the Micronesian subgroup of Oceanic languages, either as the first offshot from the proto language that also gave rise to the other Micronesian subgroup languages, or as a sister of Proto Micronesian. This alone suggests that either Nauru was the first stepping stone on the way to populate Micronesia, or was the first island settled away from the Micronesian homeland (propably in Kiribati, possibly Kosrae). The time depth for Micronesia overall is probably roughly right for Nauru.
>
> However, despite Nauruan appearing to be a highly interesting and divergent language, and being very highly endangered (fewer than 50% of the population of Nauru speak Nauruan - less than about 3000 speakers in total), little is known about it. In 1993 the German Embassy in Canberra published a facsimile of a set of typewritten 1930s missionary notes on the language by one Father Alois Kayser. Apart from that, no descriptive work has been published on the language that I am aware of.
>
> Bill Palmer
>
> Dr Bill Palmer
> Convenor, Pacific Languages Research Group
> Linguistics Research Higher Degree and Honours coordinator
> School of Humanities and Social Science
> University of Newcastle
> Callaghan NSW 2308
> Australia
> email bill.palmer at newcastle.edu.au
>>>> Stephen Wechsler <wechsler at mail.utexas.edu> 28/10/09 1:17 AM >>>
> Can anyone help with this question (from a non-linguist friend) about Nauru
> and Nauruan?
> Thanks.
>
> Steve
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>
> Howdy!  I'm writing an essay about the role of history in understanding
> ecosystems at the supplying fringe of urban areas, and I'm using Nauru for
> my example.  I haven't yet found references that say how long people have
> been on Nauru, but I have found sources that say most of Micronesia became
> populated around 3,500 years ago.  Also, Nauru has its own unique language.
>  I wonder, are you aware of any work on their language and the degree to
> which it has diverged from whatever gave rise to it that could be used as
> evidence for how long people have been on the island?
> Thanks!
> -KP
>
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