Questioning of the elite dominance theory

[Ross Clark (FOA LING)]

-----Original Message-----
From: Stanley Friesen [mailto:sarima at friesen.net]
Sent: Wednesday, 15 November 2000 4:02 p.m.

At 05:05 PM 11/13/00 +1100, Tristan Jones wrote:

>>small. Maybe that inclusive elite thing might explain the success of spread
>>of Arabic over vast areas of Middle East and Africa, Mandarin and Cantonese
>>over huge areas of China, I think before the spread of Chinese Empire,
>>Austronesian Languages would have been spoken over large areas of Southern
>>China's Rice Growing Zones.

>I think this is fairly well established.  Certainly there are still relict
>Austronesian languages in Southern China even today.

No. The only AN language in China today (apart from Taiwan of course) is
Tsat, spoken by a few thousand people on Hainan island, and it is a
relatively late intrusion from further south. That Chinese replaced
Austronesian languages as it expanded is quite possible, but none of them
survived on the mainland.

Ross Clark