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

[Yuko Kitada]

Dear colleagues,

Thank you, Gary, for your thoughtful response from UH. I appreciate your view that the definite article in The Austronesian Languages (2009) refers to the language group and does not preclude challenges to Bob’s work. My point is that the Wix site’s impression of personal veneration is not unrelated to the exclusive framing of Blust’s book title, reflecting a lack of community restraint.

My main concern is the troubling nature of the Wix site’s existence (https://blusthawaii.wixsite.com/blust)<https://blusthawaii.wixsite.com/blust>. Created by unknown individuals after or shortly before Bob’s 2022 passing, its static publication list is redundant, as Kaipuleohone and academic networks suffice. It feels like a monument fostering personal veneration, contrary to the collaborative spirit of our field. I propose discontinuing the Wix site and integrating its content into Kaipuleohone.

Regarding the ACD, I value the non-editable UH archive (https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/)<https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/> and additional archival copies, but I cannot endorse open-edited platforms like the MPI site (https://acd.clld.org/)<https://acd.clld.org/>. Even with GitHub’s version control, changes—especially from unpublished Blust materials—lack verifiable evidence (e.g., photographic documentation) and rigorous peer review, undermining credibility. The original ACD presumably draws on Blust’s published works, but the lack of specific citations makes this unclear. As a lexicon built on careful analysis, not just a dictionary, it demands that we, including myself, reconsider our default reliance on Blust’s proto-forms, especially in historical linguistics.

Best regards,
Yuko Kitada
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