ARC (Australian Research Council)
Waves of Words

This project aims to determine the extent and nature of ancient contact relationships between the first peoples of Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. The research design includes two sets of complementary methods:

• comparative linguistic and anthropological research focusing on common linguistic characteristics and cultural practices,
• numerical modelling based on linguistic, anthropological and archaeological evidence.

As a result, we also hope to discover what kinds of social configurations underlie different linguistic outcomes in situations of language contact and to improve our understanding of the relationship between linguistic change and socio-cultural change, which will have a significant impact on linguistic and anthropological theory.

Funding 2018-2021

Project members :

Associate Professor Rachel Hendery,Western Sydney University (lead CI)
Professor Patrick McConvell, The Australian National University, CI
Professor Simeon Simoff,Western Sydney University, CI
Dr Andrew Burrell,UTS, CI
Professor Laurent Dousset, EHESS, France, PI
Professor Matthew Spriggs, Research Associate
Professeur associé Tim Denham, Research Associate
Dr Antoinette Schapper, Research Assistant
Dr Michael Falk, Postdoctoral Research Fello