Current Projects

MOE Tier 1 Grant

Archaeological linguistics and the prehistory of Northeast India: reconstructing the past through ancient technologies and practices, and correlating the results with migration histories

This project wil investigate and document lexicons and technologies relating to hunting and gathering, swidden agriculture and cultivation, metalworking, clay pot-making and weaving in three linguistic communities of Northeast India as part of a larger dictionary-making project, and it will compare the findings with technologies employed in other Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai and Austroasiatic-speaking groups, the aim being to determine if cladistic linkages to Southeast Asia and East Asia can be established.

The northeast region of India is gradually becoming better known for the extreme linguistic, ethnic, and biological diversity that makes it one of the world’s hotspots for different types of research. However, at present we do not have an informed understanding of the origins of its disparate human populations, how this multilingual and multi-ethnic melting pot came to be established, or precisely by which routes they migrated into the region. An innovative methodology combining aspects of archaeological, anthropological and linguistic research will investigate oral migration histories and ancient technologies used in Northeast India to see if they align with those of other linguistic groups in Southeast and East Asia. Such an approach has hitherto never been conceived of or attempted in the tribal communities of Northeast India.

It is envisaged that the findings of this research will lead to a better appreciation of the diffusion of technology, the influence of language contact, and the pathways of historical migrations that have resulted in the peopling of Northeast India and Southeast Asia. In addition to the creation of three bilingual dictionaries, a rich corpus of annotated audiovisual data will be archived so that it is freely available for future research, thus making the output especially valuable in the event that the languages of investigation cease to be spoken by future generations.

Conference Presentations

Coupe, Alexander R. 2019. Case syncretism and the grammaticalization of case alignments: Diachronic sources and pathways of development in Tibeto-Burman and beyond. Workshop on alignment change in different frameworks, International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL24) Australian National University, Canberrra, 1-5 July.

Coupe, Alexander R. 2019. The Aoic languages in areal and typological perspective. Keynote paper, 29^th meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 27–29 May.

Coupe, Alexander R. & T. Temsunungsang. 2019. From oral tradition to written language: The Patsho Khiamniungan and Mongsen Ao dictionary projects. Conference on Asian Linguistic Anthropology, Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia, January 23-26.

Coupe, Alexander R. 2018. South Asian perspectives on relative-correlative constructions. 51^st International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics. Kyoto University, 25­–28 September. In 第51回国際漢蔵語学会実行委員会・京都大学白眉センター (51st International Kanji Language Society Executive Committee (eds.) Proceedings of the 51^st International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics. Kyoto: Kyoto University Hakubi Center http://hdl.handle.net/2433/235269

Coupe, Alexander R. 2018. On contact-induced grammaticalization in South Asia. South Asian Linguistic Analysis Roundtable (SALA34), University of Konstanz, 19–21 June.

Coupe, Alexander R. 2017. The typology of pragmatic case marking in Tibeto-Burman. South Asian Linguistic Analysis Roundtable (SALA33), Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, 15–17 May 2017.

NTU-JSPS Grant

Ethnolinguistic contact across the Indo-Myanmar-Southwestern China mountains: migration routes, intercultural interactions, and linguistic outcomes

The Northeast India-Myanmar-Southwestern China region is a recognised linguistic and ecological hotspot of the planet and home to over 300 Austroasiatic, Indo-Aryan, Sino-Tibetan and Tai-Kadai languages, many of which are under-documented and in danger of going extinct by the end of the current century. Apart from the loss of unique enthnolinguistic and cultural knowledge that such an extinction threatens, there is also an impending missed opportunity to better understand how the region came to be so remarkably diverse. In the absence of tangible material culture, the best resource for undertaking this type of investigation is language. It is envisaged that our project will shed new light on pathways of migration, modes of intercultural transmission and linguistic classification in this neglected corner of Asia, thereby advancing our knowledge of the prehistory of human population movements, and contributing to a better understanding of how linguistic convergence in multilingual communities shapes language.