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

[Yuko Kitada]

Dear Dr. Hugh Paterson III, dear AN-LANG colleagues,

Thank you, Dr. Hugh Paterson III, for your insightful perspective as an archivist on preserving the Wix site (https://blusthawaii.wixsite.com/blust)<https://blusthawaii.wixsite.com/blust> 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 (https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/)<https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/> by distinguishing it from the edited version (https://acd.clld.org/)<https://acd.clld.org/>. 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.

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.

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.

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 The Austronesian Languages (2009), is quantitatively immense, but he was, like us, just one scholar among many. The article the and the absence of phrases like “issues on” or “a guide to studying Austronesian languages” in the title The Austronesian Languages 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 The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar (2005) and Adelaar and Schapper’s The Oxford Guide to the Malayo-Polynesian Languages of Southeast Asia (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 The Austronesian Languages 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.

Regarding the ACD, I value a non-editable archival capture of Blust and Trussel’s original work at the University of Hawaiʻi (https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/)<https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/> 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 (https://acd.clld.org/)<https://acd.clld.org/>, 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.

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.

Best regards,
Yuko Kitada

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