Topics in Polynesian language and culture history

Abstract

This book is a revised version of a doctoral thesis submitted to the Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, under the title Polynesian language and culture history. The thesis was developed over a five-year period, 1 992 to 1 996. During the first year I settled upon a topic and began studying East Polynesian reconstructions in Biggs ' Pollex. By about mid 1 99 3 (Marck 1 996a) I was impressed with the extent o f sporadic sound changes among the established East Polynesian subgroups. I became interested in the idea that the older, higher order subgroups of Polynesian could be reexamined with an eye towards u niquely shared sporadic sound changes to see if any refinements in the standard subgrouping might be achieved. During the year to mid 1 994 I found that the Ellicean Outliers shared sporadic sound changes with East Polynesian and Samoan that other Polynesian languages did not share (Marck 1 999), a stunning bit of support for Wilson's (1 9 8 5 ) suggestion of "Ellicean", composed of those same languages, on the basis of the pronoun prehistory. I then turned to a year of work on cosmogony (Marck 1996b, 1996c) and then a year on kin terms (Marck 1 996d). I consolidated those and other materials into the submitted thesis in late 1997.