Linguistics Reconstruction: Case of Polynesian

Linguistic Reconstruction:
Case of Polynesian

Linguistics 203
10/8/2010

Polynesia

Polynesia

Polynesian Migration

Polynesian Languages

• Little contact with outside languages, so we
expect little blending

• No writing system before Westerners, thus no
written documentation of earlier language(s)

• How can we reconstruct the proto language?

Polynesian Languages

• All have significant similarities not shared with other
languages.

• cognates – words descended from a common source.

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian gloss
manu manu manu manu manu ‘bird’
ika iʔa iʔa ika iʔa ‘fish’
kai ʔai ʔai kai ʔai ‘to eat’
tapu tapu tapu tapu kapu ‘forbidden’
vaka vaʔa vaʔa waka waʔa ‘canoe’
fohe foe hoe hoe hoe ‘oar’
mata mata mata mata maka ‘eye’
ʔuta uta uta uta uka ‘bush’
toto toto toto toto koko ‘blood’

(Table 13-1)

Sound Correspondences

• We look for sound correspondences to identify
what sound was in the proto language

Sound Correspondences

• What correspondences can we find here?

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian gloss
manu manu manu manu manu ‘bird’
ika iʔa iʔa ika iʔa ‘fish’
kai ʔai ʔai kai ʔai ‘to eat’
tapu tapu tapu tapu kapu ‘forbidden’

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian
m- m- m- m- m-
-n- -n- -n- -n- -n-
-k- -ʔ- -ʔ- -k- -ʔ-
t- t- t- t- k-
-p- -p- -p- -p- -p-

Sound Correspondences

• What correspondences can we find here?

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian gloss
vaka vaʔa vaʔa waka waʔa ‘canoe’
fohe foe hoe hoe hoe ‘oar’
ʔuta uta uta uta uka ‘bush’
taŋi taŋi taʔi taŋi kani ‘to cry’

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian
v- v- v- w- w-
-k- -ʔ- -ʔ- -k- -ʔ-
f- h-
-h- f- h- h- -Ø-
ʔ- -Ø- -Ø- -Ø- Ø-
t- Ø- Ø- Ø- k-
-ŋ- t- t- t- -n-
-ŋ- -ʔ- -ŋ-

Sound Correspondences

• Here are all the consonantal sound correspondences
from Tables 13-1 and 13-2 in the book.

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian
m- m- m- m- m-
-n- -n- -n- -n- -n-
-k- -ʔ- -ʔ- -k- -ʔ-
t- t- t- t- k-
-p- -p- -p- -p- -p-
v- v- v- w- w-
f- f- h- h- h-
-h- -Ø- -Ø- -Ø- -Ø-
ʔ- Ø- Ø- Ø- Ø-
-ŋ- -ŋ- -ʔ- -ŋ- -n-

Proto Polynesian Sound Inventory

• Which sound is the proto sound?

• General rule: it is the form requiring the least change

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian proto-sound
m- m- m- m- m- *m-
-n- -n- -n- -n- -n- *-n-
t- t- t- t- k- *t-

Proto Polynesian Sound Inventory

• We can represent this as follows:

• In Hawaiian, */t/ became /k/. This is shown
with the following rule: *t > k

Proto Polynesian Sound Inventory

• What do we do in the following case?

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian proto-sound
m- m- m- m- m- *m-
-n- -n- -n- -n- -n- *-n-
t- t- t- t- k- *t-
-ŋ- -ŋ- -ʔ- -ŋ- -n-

Proto Polynesian Sound Inventory

• What do we do in the following case?

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian proto-sound
m- m- m- m- m- *m-
-n- -n- -n- -n- -n- *-n-
t- t- t- t- k- *t-
-ŋ- -ŋ- -ʔ- -ŋ- -n- *-ŋ-

• In Hawaiian, /n/ and /ŋ/ have merged.

Proto Polynesian Sound Inventory

• What if we reconstructed *-n-

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian proto-sound
m- m- m- m- m- *m-
-n- -n- -n- -n- -n- *-n-
t- t- t- t- k- *t-
-ŋ- -ŋ- -ʔ- -ŋ- -n- *-n-

• We would have to explain the following:

• *-n- > -n-
• *-n- > -ŋ-

(in the same languages)

Proto Polynesian Sound Inventory

• Caveats:

– A sound may have changed the same way in all
daughter languages; if so, it came from a
phonetically similar sound

• What might /m/ come from in such a case?

– Borrowed words might have sounds not in native
words, or not in the same position

• In Tongan, *s > h; however, /s/ is found in the loanword
/sikaleti/

Proto Polynesian Sound Inventory

• Caveats:

– A language may have borrowed a word while
related dialects did not.

– A language may have borrowed a word from a
related dialects.

Subgroups

• Some daughter languages are more closely
related than others. Why?

Language A

/sahag/

Language P Language X
*h > ∅ *s > h
/saag/ /hahag/

Language Q Language R Language Y Language Z
| *a > o *g > k |
/soog/ /hahak/
/saag/ /hahag/

Subgroups

• Tongan retains /h/, unlike the other languages.
• The other languages retain /l/ or /r/, unlike Tongan.
• Niuean shares these similarities with Tongan. They

belong together in a subgroup of Proto Polynesian.

Subgroups

Reconstructing Words

• To find proto forms, we look for reflexes (i.e.
cognates) in all subgroups.

• Most plausible form based on sound
correspondences is considered the proto form.

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian proto-sound
-k- -ʔ- -ʔ- -k- -ʔ-
v- v- v- w- w-

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian proto-form
vaka vaʔa vaʔa waka waʔa

Reconstructing Words

• Assume we had found the following sound
correspondences:

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian proto-sound
-k- -ʔ- -ʔ- -k- -ʔ- *-k-
v- v- v- w- w- *v-

• What should we reconstruct?

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian proto-form
vaka vaʔa vaʔa waka waʔa

Reconstructing Words

• Assume we had found the following sound
correspondences:

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian proto-sound
-k- -ʔ- -ʔ- -k- -ʔ- *-k-
v- v- v- w- w- *v-

• What should we reconstruct?

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian proto-form
vaka vaʔa vaʔa waka
waʔa *vaka

Reconstructed Vocabulary
Cultural Clues

• Words that can be reconstructed tell us about
the culture and origins of the ancestors of
current language speakers.

Reconstructed Vocabulary
Cultural Clues

• Many terms related to ocean

= people lived near water

• Topographic features found on large volcanic islands

= people probably didn’t live in atolls or raised coral islands

Reconstructed Vocabulary
Cultural Clues

• Many terms related to sea animals
• Not as many related to land animals

Reconstructed Vocabulary
Cultural Clues

• Bats and owls don’t exist in Tahiti, Easter Island or
the Marquesas; probably wasn’t original homeland

Reconstructed Vocabulary
Cultural Clues

• Snakes only found east of Samoa; homeland
probably was not west of Samoa

Reconstructed Vocabulary
Cultural Clues

• Pigs, though not native, existed on Polynesian islands, except
for Niue, Easter Island; also New Zealand (Maori)

Reconstructed Vocabulary
Cultural Clues

• Proto-Polynesian word for ‘owl’ *lulu

• Hawaiian word for ‘owl’ pueo

• Marquesas have no owls. Ancient Polynesians
likely went to Marquesas, lost word for owl
over time, then went to Hawaii and needed a
new word for owl.

Reconstructed Vocabulary
Cultural Clues

Reconstructed Vocabulary
Cultural Clues

• Many words for fishing, cultivating.

• Three words for hunting:

*fana ‘to shoot with a bow’
*welo ‘to spear’
*seu ‘to snare with a net’

Summary

• Reconstruction looks for sound correspondences
in cognates of related languages to arrive at the
proto sounds.

• Reconstruction of vocabulary relies on cognates
and sound correspondences.

• Not only does historical linguistics help
understand language change, origins and
relations, it also provides clues about past
cultures.

Reconstruction:
The Comparative Method

• Requires a number of related languages
• Based on assumption that sound change is

regular

Reconstruction:
The Comparative Method

1. Compile a set of cognates and eliminate
borrowings

2. Determine sound correspondences
3. Reconstruct a sound for each position
4. Once sounds correspondences are set up,

you can reconstruct proto forms.

Reconstruction:
Choosing Which Sound to Reconstruct

1. Make a sound correspondence chart.

2. Do all languages have the same sound in a
particular position?

– if yes, reconstruct this sound; if not, continue to
step 3.

Tongan Samoan Tahitian Maori Hawaiian proto-sound
m- m- m- m- m- *m-
-n- -n- -n- -n- -n- *-n-

Reconstruction:
Choosing Which Sound to Reconstruct

3. Are there any sets of sound correspondences
like the following? (if not, go to 4)

A B C gloss
siza sesa siza ‘strawberry’
sizu sisu sizu ‘pitchfork’

• Reconstruct *-i- in ‘pitchfork’, and *-e- in
‘strawberry’

Reconstruction:
Choosing Which Sound to Reconstruct

4. Is one type of sound change more natural
than another? (if not, go to 5)

A B C D E proto-sound
-p- -b- -b- -p- -b- *-p-

• -b- is slightly more frequent, but the change
VbV > VpV is less natural than VpV > VbV

Reconstruction:

The Comparative Method

• Common sound changes:

• voiceless sounds become voiced between vowels and before
voiced consonants

• stops become fricatives between vowels
• consonants become palatalized before front vowels
• difficult consonant clusters are simplified
• difficult consonants are made easier (e.g. loss of aspiration in

stops)
• oral vowels become nasalized before nasals
• fricatives other than [h] become [h]
• [h] deletes between vowels
• clusters of vowels are broken up by consonants

Source: Language Files 10: Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics.
Anouschka Bergmann, Kathleen Currie Hall and Sharon Miriam Ross (eds.). The Ohio
State University Press. Columbus, OH.

Reconstruction:
Choosing Which Sound to Reconstruct

5. Use Occam’s Razor: the simplest solution is
the most likely

Reconstruction: Practice

• Find the sound correspondence for the vowels
in the following data:

English German Dutch Swedish Gloss
[mæn] [man] [man] [man] ‘man’
[hænd] [hant] [hant] [hand] ‘hand’

Reconstruction: Practice

• What sound correspondences exist in the data
below?

Reconstruction: Practice

• What sound correspondences exist in the data
below? ([tɕ] is a voiceless, palatal affricate)

Mandarin Hakka gloss
tɕin kim ‘zither’
la lat ‘spicy hot’
mɔ mɔk ‘lonesome’
lan lam ‘basket’
tɕi gip ‘worry’
lan lan ‘lazy’
pa pa ‘fear’

Reconstruction: Practice

Mandarin Hakka Mandarin Hakka
tɕin kim tɕ- k-
la lat -n -m
mɔ mɔk l- l-
lan lam -Ø -t
tɕi gip m- m-
lan lan -Ø -k
pa pa tɕ- g-
-Ø -p
-n -n
p- p-

Reconstruction: Practice

Mandarin Hakka proto-sounds
tɕ- k-
-n -m l-
l- l- m-
-Ø -t
m- m- -n
-Ø -k p-
tɕ- g-
-Ø -p
-n -n
p- p-

Reconstruction: Practice

Mandarin Hakka proto-sounds
tɕ- k- -m
-n -m l-
l- l- m-
-Ø -t
m- m- -n
-Ø -k p-
tɕ- g-
-Ø -p
-n -n
p- p-

Reconstruction: Practice

Mandarin Hakka proto-sounds
tɕ- k-
-n -m -m
l- l- l-
-Ø -t -t
m- m- m-
-Ø -k -k
tɕ- g-
-Ø -p -p
-n -n -n
p- p- p-

Reconstruction: Practice

Mandarin Hakka proto-sounds
tɕ- k- k-
-n -m -m
l- l- l-
-Ø -t -t
m- m- m-
-Ø -k -k
tɕ- g- g-
-Ø -p -p
-n -n -n
p- p- p-

Reconstruction: Practice

• Reconstruct the proto-forms of the words:

proto-sound Mandarin Hakka proto-form
k- tɕin kim
-m la lat kim
l- mɔ mɔk
-t lan lam lat
m- tɕi gip mɔk
-k lan lan lam
g- pa pa gip
-p lan
-n pa
p-

Reconstruction: Practice

• Describe the sound changes:

Mandarin Hakka proto-forms • Hakka:
tɕ- k- k-
-n -m -m – none
l- l- l-
-Ø -t -t • Mandarin:
m- m- m-
-Ø -k -k – Bilabial -m became
tɕ- g- g- alveolar -n
-Ø -p -p
-n -n -n – (voiceless) stops > Ø
p- p- p-
– initial (velar) stops >
palatal affricates

(velar stops > palatal affricates in
front of [i])