The Munda Maritime Hypothesis

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorRau, Felix
dc.contributor.authorSidwell, Paul
dc.date.accessioned2019-09-12T22:05:31Z
dc.date.available2019-09-12T22:05:31Z
dc.date.issued2019-09-12
dc.description.abstractOn the basis of historical linguistic and language geographic evidence, the authors advance the novel hypothesis that the Munda languages originated on the east coast of India after their Austroasiatic precursor arrived via a maritime route from Southeast Asia, 3,500 to 4,000 years ago. Based on the linguistic evidence, we argue that pre-Proto-Munda arose in Mainland Southeast Asia after the spread of rice agriculture in the late Neolithic period, sometime after 4,500 years ago. A small Austroasiatic population then brought pre-Proto-Munda by means of a maritime route across the Bay of Bengal to the Mahanadi Delta region – an important hub location for maritime trade in historic and pre-historic times. The interaction with a local South Asian population gave rise to proto-Munda and the Munda branch of Austroasiatic. The Maritime Hypothesis accounts for the linguistic evidence better than other scenarios such as an Indian origin of Austroasiatic or a migration from Southeast Asia through the Brahmaputra basin. The available evidence from archaeology and genetics further supports the hypothesis of a small founder population of Austroasiatic speakers arriving in Odisha from Southeast Asia before the Aryan conquest in the Iron-Age.
dc.format.extent24 pages
dc.identifier.issn1836-6821
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10524/52454
dc.subjectMunda
dc.subjecthistorical linguistics
dc.subjecthomeland
dc.subjectmigration
dc.subjectSouth Asia
dc.subject.languagecodemun
dc.subject.languagecodekfq
dc.subject.languagecodesat
dc.subject.languagecodemjx
dc.subject.languagecodetrd
dc.subject.languagecodeunr
dc.subject.languagecodeunx
dc.subject.languagecodeasr
dc.subject.languagecodebiy
dc.subject.languagecodehoc
dc.subject.languagecodecdz
dc.subject.languagecodeekl
dc.subject.languagecodekfp
dc.subject.languagecodeksz
dc.subject.languagecodebix
dc.subject.languagecodeagi
dc.titleThe Munda Maritime Hypothesis
dc.typeArticle
dc.type.dcmiText
prism.endingpage57
prism.number2
prism.publicationnameJournal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society
prism.startingpage35
prism.volume12

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
02RauSidwell2019_2Munda.pdf
Size:
2.21 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

A. Research Papers (Peer-Reviewed)