Austronesian Geographical prospects

Abstract

While linguistic geography with regard to Western European languages is developing towards ever greater sociolinguistic and geographical detail in its endeavours to map linguistic change in progress and to reveal the linguistic past, large parts of the rest of the world are virtually blank spots. The necessity to improve upon this deplorable state of affairs is underlined by the recent publication of S. A. Wurm and Shir? Hattori (eds.), Language Atlas of the Area. Part I, New Guinea Area, Oceania, Australia, Linguistics C-66 (1981); Partii, Japan Area, Philippines and Formosa, Mainland and Insular South-east Asia, Linguistics C-67, 1983. The area covered by this atlas extends over about one third of the world and comprises some of the linguistically most diversified regions. For few of the languages involved do detailed dialectological surveys exist; for many there are at least preliminary outlines and wordlists available; but of far too many hardly anything is known beyond the name. Language maps only existed for a limited number of areas. This atlas is therefore in many respects a pioneering work. The two parts together cover the whole of the Pacific area. Each is divided into sections. Part I consists of one index map, fourteen maps of the New Guinea area (one survey map and three more detailed maps of Irian Jaya, one survey map of Papua-New Guinea and nine maps covering separate parts of it), five maps of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, four maps of Australia and Tasmania, and one additional map relating to pidgins and lingue franche in the area covered by this part. Part II includes one general map of language groups in the Greater area, four maps of the Japan area, one map of Formosa, four maps of the Philippines, three maps of mainland Southeast Asia, eight maps of insular Southeast Asia, and two additional maps, one for the pidgins, cre?les and lingue franche in the area covered by Part II, and one showing the distribution of varieties of Chinese in the Greater area. Each section has a general introduction, as well as an index to the names of the dialects, languages and language groups covered by the map or maps of that section. On the reverse side of each non-survey map the languages and dialects indicated on that map are listed according to