37.1261, Books: The Austronesian Languages of Eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste: Grimes and Edwards (2026)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1261. Mon Mar 30 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1261, Books: The Austronesian Languages of Eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste: Grimes and Edwards (2026)

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Valeriia Vyshnevetska
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Mara Baccaro, Daniel Swanson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Mara Baccaro <mara at linguistlist.org>

================================================================


Date: 25-Mar-2026
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [support at langsci-press.org]
Subject: The Austronesian Languages of Eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste: Grimes and Edwards (2026)


Title: The Austronesian Languages of Eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste
Subtitle: Unravelling their prehistory and classification
Series Title: Languages of the New Guinea Region
Publication Year: 2026

Publisher: Language Science Press
           http://langsci-press.org
Book URL: https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/526

Author(s): Charles E. Grimes, Owen Edwards

eBook

Abstract:

For 150 years there has been a question over how the Austronesian
languages of eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste fit into the
Austronesian world. The area is severely under-documented. There has
been no consensus on the classification of these languages, and
scholars admit to being perplexed. This is the first systematic
attempt at subgrouping the whole region based on historical phonology,
supplemented by morphosyntax and the lexicon. Insights from
archaeology, DNA studies, and awareness of long-term contact with
Papuan languages inform this study.
Nine Wallacean subgroups are identified, along with their internal
structures. Light is shed on languages whose classification has been
unclear. Discontinuities in the historical phonology suggest different
groups speaking different Austronesian languages got off different
boats at different places, probably at different times. No evidence is
found supporting a monolithic Austronesian advance through the region,
nor a common Austronesian parent language below PMP that links all
Wallacean subgroups.
Speakers of SVO Austronesian languages with prepositions, preverbal
negation, numbers before nouns, and post-posed possessors came into
contact with speakers of languages of unrelated Papuan families, with
postpositions, clause-final negation, numbers following nouns,
preposed possessors, and other features of SOV languages. Austronesian
languages adopted these features but not uniformly, such that features
attributed to contact are uneven across the region. Some are not found
in some subgroups or branches within subgroups. Distribution maps of
phonological, grammatical, and lexical features show many features are
not found in all subgroups, do not align with each other, and some are
found outside the region. Austronesian languages in the region are a
kind of uneven hybrid that make them typologically different from
Austronesian languages to the west and north.
The study evaluates earlier proposals along with new possibilities to
link subgroups in different ways, but finds no exclusively shared
innovations inherited from a common parent. Scenarios are explored of
how Austronesian-speaking peoples came into the region. The uneven
distribution of various features is addressed. Implications are many,
and warrant a revised picture of the Austronesian world.
Several factors enabled this more in-depth study than has been
previously possible. Both authors have extensive experience in the
region. Many Dutch-era sources have become accessible online. Recent
publications and unpublished data have been shared by others. This
enabled the authors to glean data from 517 Austronesian and Papuan
languages from within the region as well as to the west and east of
it, providing context. Within the region, data have been gleaned from
292 varieties (256 Austronesian, 36 Papuan), some of which are now
extinct. The volume is data rich with 334 data tables, 78 figures
(including 32 maps), and 195 numbered examples/lists of data.
The appendices in .txt format along with select figures and maps can
be downloaded from: https://doi.org/10.18710/3CT9RO.

Linguistic Field(s): Phonology
                     Typology

Language Family(ies): East Indonesian
                      Timor

Written In: English (eng)



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not for profit organization:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Brill https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en

Edinburgh University Press http://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

European Language Resources Association (ELRA) http://www.elra.info

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

Lincom GmbH https://lincom-shop.eu/

MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG http://www.narr.de/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Peter Lang AG http://www.peterlang.com

SIL International Publications http://www.sil.org/resources/publications


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1261
----------------------------------------------------------