[An-lang] Moving Blust’s Legacy Forward: Archiving for the Next Era

[Hugh Paterson III]

As an archivist, I suggest that changing the site from a static to dynamic
site is a violation of its innate integrity. While the "truths" of Blust's
knowledge and discovery are to be grappled with for generations of
scholars, the medium and arrangement of his website (notes, papers, etc.)
is how he arranged them. For better or worse, they should stay like that in
their form, then future work should cite them in their original
arrangement. That said, It would be nice if a digital archivist would use
internet archiving technologies to capture the complete site as is and
store that in a more permanent location. WARC is the most widely used
format for this type of preservation work and the open source
webrecorder-player is the general tool used to browse local copies of
captured websites: https://github.com/webrecorder/webrecorder-player.

With regard to Blust's Austronesian Comparative Dictionary available at:
https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/ there was an effort to make it "dynamic"
https://acd.clld.org/. However, the persons who did this work also made
"edits" or "changes" to the information and these may be in line with broad
scholarly agreements, but they 1) are not reflected in the entries as
having been changed, and 2) the new work as a whole is not reflective of
Blust's work. Therefore, these two editions should be cited and referenced
independently. A true archival capture of Blust and Trussel's work would be
useful. Converting it to a technology platform upon which other scholars
can add their own "layers" or "opinions" would indeed be a bug step forward
for the larger austronesian linguistic scholarly community. However, simply
taking the data, using the same title for the work, and making slight
changes seems to be out of line with the scholarly tradition and
transparency for which scholars have come to advocate.

Additionally, the cross-indexing and navigation methods inspired by the
cross-indexing of Blust and Trussel should be preserved as they are part of
the work. Additional cross-indexing may be useful but should be considered
an additional "layer" on top of the original work rather than altering the
original work.

Kind Regards,
- Hugh Paterson III




On Sun, Sep 21, 2025 at 12:40 PM Yuko Kitada <yukokitada at outlook.com> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> I hope you’re all having a great start to the semester! As an independent
> researcher diving into Austronesian linguistics, I’m constantly inspired by
> Robert Blust’s monumental contributions—his *Austronesian Comparative
> Dictionary* and *The Austronesian Languages* are true cornerstones of our
> field. His personal website *(https://blusthawaii.wixsite.com/blust)
> <https://blusthawaii.wixsite.com/blust>* remains a fantastic resource,
> and I’m grateful to the students or colleagues keeping it alive since his
> passing in 2022.
>
> That said, Blust’s contributions are extraordinary, but I’m wondering how
> we can honor his legacy without deifying it and move our field into its
> next era. A few thoughts:
>
>    - The site is a treasure, but its static nature risks deifying Blust’s
>    work as an untouchable canon, potentially discouraging bold new hypotheses
>    from younger or independent researchers (e.g., revisiting Formosan
>    subgrouping and reconstructing the PAn and PMP grammars).
>    - Without updates, it feels frozen, missing recent Austronesian
>    insights that could build on Blust’s foundation.
>    - A personal Wix site, while accessible, is less stable than an
>    institutional archive like UH’s digital library or the ACD. Operating it
>    through UH would ensure longevity and clarity, avoiding confusion about
>    what’s Blust’s work versus posthumous additions.
>
> What does everyone think? Could we transition Blust’s site to a dynamic,
> official archive at UH or the ACD to preserve his brilliance while making
> space for new voices? Isn’t it time to move Austronesian linguistics into
> its next era, building on Blust’s legacy without being anchored to it? I’d
> love to hear if this has been discussed or if plans are in the works.
>
> Best regards,
> Yuko Kitada
>
> _______________________________________________
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> An-lang at anu.edu.au
> https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/an-lang
>
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