Language trees support the express-train sequence of Austronesian expansion
Open accessAbstract
Languages, like molecules, document evolutionary history. Darwin observed that evolutionary change in languages greatly resembled the processes of biological evolution: inheritance from a common ancestor and convergent evolution operate in both. Despite many suggestions, few attempts have been made to apply the phylogenetic methods used in biology to linguistic data. Here we report a parsimony analysis of a large language data set. We use this analysis to test competing hypotheses--the "express-train" and the "entangled-bank" models--for the colonization of the Pacific by Austronesian-speaking peoples. The parsimony analysis of a matrix of 77 Austronesian languages with 5,185 lexical items produced a single most-parsimonious tree. The express-train model was converted into an ordered geographical character and mapped onto the language tree. We found that the topology of the language tree was highly compatible with the express-train model.
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Linguistic evidence supports the Express-train hypothesis, according to which Polynesian ancestors moved rapidly from Eastern Asia into the Pacific without significant admixture with Melanesians.
“Furthermore, linguistic evidence (Gray and Jordan 2000) is usually interpreted to support the ''Express-train'' hypothesis (Diamond 1988), according to which Polynesian ancestors moved rapidly from Eastern Asia into the Pacific without significant admixture with Melanesians”
From Melanesian and Asian origins of Polynesians: MtDNA and Y chromosome gradients across the Pacific (2006) · cites this paper as Gray and Jordan 2000
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“…et al. 2012; Kempe et al. 2014), a wide range of methodologies are used in the field of cultural evolution, including phylogenetic analysis (e.g. Gray and Jordan 2000; Tehrani and Collard 2002; Lycett 2009; Currie et al. 2010; Tehrani 2013; O’Brien et al. 2014), laboratory experiments (e.g.…”
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- Authors
- Gray, R. D., & Jordan, F. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- Corresponding author
- Gray, Russell D.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2000-06-29
- Volume
- 405
- Issue
- 6790
- Pages
- 1052-1055
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W1662043995
- Cited by
- 430
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 307.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Maryland Sea Grant, University of Maryland
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Linguistics and language evolution
- Social Sciences › Geography, Planning and Development › Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
- Keywords
- Austronesian languages, language phylogeny, Austronesian expansion, lexical evolution, language divergence, parsimony analysis
- MeSH terms
- Archaeology, Asia, Australia, Biological Evolution, Humans, Language, Models, Biological, Pacific Islands, Phylogeny, Polynesia, Population Dynamics
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