Charting the extinction of languages
THE RISE AND FALL OF LANGUAGES R.M.W. Dixon Cambridge University Press, 1997. $19.95
By Tony Diller* How many will survive? Of the approximately 260 languages that were spoken by the original inhabitants of the Australian continent at the time of European invasion, few are spoken now and most of those are heading for extinction. But there is some better news, too. For over three decades ANU has been vigorous in documenting and pursuing accurate linguistic descriptions of those Australian languages that do still remain. Generations in the future and distant future are sure to look back to ANU with gratitude for these efforts. At the centre of this descriptive activity is the author of The Rise and Fall of Languages: R.M.W. Dixon, Founding Professor of the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, and now Director of ANU's Research Centre for Linguistic Typology (ANU Reporter, August 20, 1997). Among the world's top linguists, Professor Dixon has produced grammatical studies of Australian languages based on extensive fieldwork and has inspired and trained scores of students and colleagues to carry on similar research. Apart from his Australian work, Dixon has written a grammar of Boumaa Fijian and is currently doing fieldwork on languages of the Amazon. An important contribution to linguistic theory has been a series of studies on "ergativity", a typological feature common in Australian languages whereby direct objects and intransitive subjects pattern in one "absolutive" way but transitive subjects in another "ergative" one. The scope and depth of this field-based linguistic research are clear throughout the book. The Rise and Fall of Languages, although a slim volume, is hefty in authorial impact, giving the reader a clear impression of Dixon's particular approach to the discipline and a feeling for the dimensions of his linguistic career. Indeed, the writing is more often than not personal in tone and not infrequently autobiographical. Occasionally commentary becomes downright vituperative, as when attention turns to those responsible for linguistic and cultural exterminations or for linguistic doctrines owing more to the comforts of the armchair than to the rigours of the bush shelter. All this makes for provocative, thoughtful and entertaining reading: linguist and non-linguist alike will have a hard time putting it down. We know of the tragic extinction of most Australian languages but what happened before the invasion - during the linguistic prehistory of these languages and their ancestors over a period of at least 50,000 years? It is in this area of language history that The Rise and Fall of Languages makes intriguing theoretical proposals. The family-tree model often taken for granted in traditional discussions of language history is here decentred. It becomes but one relatively quick phase in the linguistic evolutionary picture. Characteristic of periods of social upheaval and migration, the branching-tree development is held to alternate with longer, slower stable eras characterised by gradual areal contact and diffusion. The family-tree model was shared by linguists and biologists in the last century and here once again this cross-disciplinary interplay is activated. The two-stage model noted above is referred to as "punctuated equilibrium", a proposal in evolutionary biology familiar through the writings of Stephen Jay Gould and colleagues. While Dixon proposes this interplay of fast branching and slow diffusion for language groups generally, for Australian languages it seems especially apt because of Australia's ecological history and particular geography, with few impenetrable obstacles. Where the lay of the land is different, such as in the Caucasus or in the Amazon, particular ecologies interact to affect the working-out of developmental stages. Other more language-internal factors come into play also, such as a developmental cycle involving isolating, agglutinative and fusional typological characteristics. The Rise and Fall of Languages is considered an essay by its author and we are promised a fuller treatment of the topics in forthcoming works. Both this prologue and the version to come are sure to make a substantial impact on historical linguistics, perhaps an impact as great as the author's earlier work on ergativity. The cross-disciplinary nature of the proposed model, and the engaging way the author presents it, will appeal to a wider general audience as well. * Dr Tony Diller is head of the National Thai Studies Centre in the Faculty of Asian Studies, ANU.