Open AccessKusunda: An Indo-Pacific language in Nepal
Author(s) -
Paul Whitehouse,
Timothy Usher,
Merritt Ruhlen,
William Yang Wang
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.0400233101
Subject(s) - new guinea , indo pacific , tribe , language family , perspective (graphical) , geography , south asia , languages of asia , austronesian languages , linguistics , ethnology , genealogy , history , anthropology , biology , sociology , ecology , language contact , computer science , philosophy , artificial intelligence
The Kusunda people of central Nepal have long been regarded as a relic tribe of South Asia. They are, or were until recently, seminomadic hunter-gatherers, living in jungles and forests, with a language that shows no similarities to surrounding languages. They are often described as shorter and darker than neighboring tribes. Our research indicates that the Kusunda language is a member of the Indo-Pacific family. This is a surprising finding inasmuch as the Indo-Pacific family is located on New Guinea and surrounding islands. The possibility that Kusunda is a remnant of the migration that led to the initial peopling of New Guinea and Australia warrants additional investigation from both a linguistic and genetic perspective.