Linguist maps out a long career
By Sean Daly For ANU Emeritus Professor of Linguistics Stephen Wurm, this week is cause for a double celebration. Not only was yesterday the world-renowned linguist's 75th birthday, but today one of his most important works is launched.
The Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas marks the culmination of six years of research by the editors (Prof Wurm, Peter Mülhaüsler and Darrell Tryon and the cartographer, Theo Baumann) and 84 other contributors from around the globe. It highlights the international character and standing of the project by the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies' Linguistics department. The huge body of work (a 7kg package of two text volumes and a map volume containing 299 maps) covers Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, South-East Asia, Oceania, the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, Mongolia, Central Asia, the Causcasus, Siberia, Arctic, Canada, Alaska, United States; Mexico, Central and South America. The work, sponsored by UNESCO; The Australian Academy of Humanities, The International Union of Academics and the ANU, is the third published by the atlas project established in 1978 under the ANU's Linguistics program - the Language Atlas of the Pacific Area was published in 1981 and the Language Atlas of China followed in 1990. Work is continuing on an atlas of endangered languages in South America. "Ninety per cent of the atlas is new knowledge," Prof Wurm said. "It is the result of the research of scholars working in the regions covered. I have been travelling throughout this region for 40 years, so I know most of these people personally." Prof Wurm said the atlas would have a wide appeal and had already attracted orders from not only linguists, but libraries and several embassies around the world. "It has practical business applications in almost two-thirds of the globe." The atlas started as a study of the influence of English in the Pacific. "At first we planned to look just at the Pacific rim, but everything was linked so we couldn't stay just on the edge of the ocean." The book, which covered historical and modern languages, includes first-time documenting of language links along the old silk trade route to China; languages of religion in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, and the development and use of Pidgin languages. It also covers the modern media's influence in languages and communication in the area. Prof Wurm, who edited the atlas with Peter Mülhaüsler of the University of Adelaide and Darrell Tryon of RSPAS, remains the driving force behind the ANU's atlas project - even though he officially retired in 1987. Despite his age, Prof Wurm shows no inclination of slowing down. A master of 40 languages, his expertise is in constant demand throughout the world. As a past president of the International Union of Academics, honorary president of UNESCO's International Council of Humanistic Studies and newly elected president of the International Council of Linguistics, Prof Wurm is rarely at his Canberra home, travelling instead to all corners of the globe.