Narrative Historical Linguistics: Linguistic Evidence for Human (Pre)history

Narrative historical linguistics (NHL) is considered as a valued contributor alongside history, archaeology, and genetics for an integrated study of human history. This chapter draws on work on the history of the vast Austronesian family, particularly its Oceanic subgroup. It discusses the working relation of NHL with other historical scholarship. The chapter focuses on relationships between languages and the ways in which the information on the relationships can be used to gain historical insights both on a world scale and on the language family scale. Probably the aspect of NHL best known to scholars outside NHL is the reconstruction of ancient lexicon and its use to establish the homeland and material culture of a protolanguage. The chapter draws heavily on plentiful and well-researched reconstructions of the lexicons of Proto-Austronesian, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, and especially Proto-Oceanic. It also discusses the future prospects for NHL.