The Lexicostatistical Classification of the Malayopolynesian Languages

Abstract

It is the purpose of this paper to present some of the results of a statistical comparison of the basic vocabularies of a collection of Malayopolynesian languages.l By reason of the very number of its members, the Malayopolynesian family has great importance among the language families of the world. A fair estimate would place the number of Malayopolynesian languages at about 500. If the number of the languages in the world is set at about 4000, then about X of all the world's languages are Malayopolynesian. To classify so many languages is a task of no mean proportions. Not only is the number large, but, as is the case with many languages spoken by peoples who in the main do not occupy the center of the world's stage, material from these languages is often not easily available. The stimulus for such a classification came from the interest of ethnologists and archaeologists working in the Pacific area. It was their hope that the implications of the distribution of the Malayopolynesian languages for the migration of their speakers might suggest to them probable fruitful areas of investigation. As a consequence of this, the Tri-Institutional Pacific Program was formed about 1954, with finances supplied by the Carnegie Foundation. The three participating institutions are Yale University, the University of Hawaii, and the Bishop Museum of Hawaii. This study was initiated under the sponsorship of that program.2 It has become increasingly clear that the strongest hypothesis regarding the homeland of peoples speaking languages belonging to the same family is one that assigns this homeland to the area in which the genetically most diverse members of the family are to be found. It is reasonable to assume that the whole of a large number of groups of people is not likely to migrate as a collection of distinct groups. If then we find the most diverse collection of languages belonging to the