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Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database

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The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database or ABVD is a large database of basic vocabulary lists that mainly covers the Austronesian languages.[1] It also has a comprehensive inventory of basic vocabulary lists for Kra–Dai languages, Hmong–Mien languages, Japonic languages, and other languages of East Asia.[2][3] It is currently the largest lexical database of Austronesian languages in terms of the number of languages covered.

History

The database was created by Simon J. Greenhill as part of a graduate research project that he was working on with Russell Gray. Each vocabulary list in the database has 210 basic words. The list was originally from a set of printed 200-item word lists developed by Robert Blust as a lexicostatistical aid for classifying the Austronesian languages. 10 more numerals were added after the original 200th item, 'four', giving the word list its present 210-item inventory.

In 2008, a computational analysis of the lexical database showed that the Austronesian languages had originated from Taiwan, rather than from Indonesia or other regions of Oceania.[4][5]

The database was originally hosted by the University of Auckland, and is currently hosted by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

References

  1. ^ Klamer, Marian (2019). "The dispersal of Austronesian languages in Island South East Asia: Current findings and debates". Language and Linguistics Compass. 13 (4). doi:10.1111/lnc3.12325.
  2. ^ Greenhill SJ, Blust R, Gray RD (November 2008). "The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: from bioinformatics to lexomics". Evolutionary Bioinformatics. 4: 271–83. doi:10.4137/ebo.s893. PMC 2614200. PMID 19204825.
  3. ^ Gray, R. D.; Drummond, A. J.; Greenhill, S. J. (2009). "Language Phylogenies Reveal Expansion Pulses and Pauses in Pacific Settlement". Science. 323 (5913): 479–483. Bibcode:2009Sci...323..479G. doi:10.1126/science.1166858. PMID 19164742. S2CID 29838345.
  4. ^ Our research. Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database.
  5. ^ Pacific people spread from Taiwan, language evolution, study shows. ScienceDaily.
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