Paul Sidwell

Paul Sidwell is an independent Canberra based researcher and consultant in linguistics, specializing in Southeast Asian languages and language history, forensic linguistics, and applied research for security and law-enforcement (via his business Language Intelligence email language.intel@gmail.com). 2013 to 2016 Sidwell was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the Australian National University (College of Asia and the Pacific). Sidwell is a leading specialist in Austroasiatic linguistics, especially the Katuic and Bahnaric branches. His most recent significant contribution was to edit (with Mathias Jenny) the Brill Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages.

In 2015 Sidwell was elected President of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. He serves as Editor of JSEALS (the Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society), and as an editor of Mon-Khmer Studies, and is the Series Editor for Brill monographs Grammars and Sketches of Languages of Mainland and Insular SEAsia. 2011-2014 he served as Managing Editor for Pacific Linguistics (ANU/DeGruyterMouton).

Previous professional appointments

• 2007–2011: Center for Research in Computational Linguistics, Bangkok, Director of Mon-Khmer Language Project.
• 2001–2004: ANU, Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow
• 2005–2007: ANU Visiting Research Fellow, funded by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
• 2001: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Collaborating Scientist

On May 28, 2015, Sidwell was elected President of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society.

Grants

• 2014. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (Jena, Germany) Phylogenetic Analysis of the Austroasiatic Languages (A$10,000)
• 2011. Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, 2012-2016 (A$682,460)
• 2009. National Endowment For The Humanities (Division of Preservation & Access) for Mon-Khmer languages Project (US$349,540)
• 2007. National Endowment For The Humanities (Division of Preservation & Access) for Mon-Khmer languages Project (US$349,950)
• 2005-6. Project funds and "Sachkostenzuschuss" provided by the Department of Linguistics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Antropology (Leipzig, Germany), to support research on the Mon-Khmer languages of Indo-China (Euro96,000)
• 2003. Direct Aid Fund, Australian Embassy Vientiane, Paksong Ethnic Literacy Promotion Project (US$5000)
• 2003. Snowy Mountains Engineering Corp. Foundation, Paksong Cultural Centre Project (A$5000)
• 2002. (with Bowden, S. O’Connor and M. Spriggs), An Integrated Fieldwork Laboratory for the Humanities and Social Sciences, ANU Major Equipment Committee ($177,600)
• 2001. Australian Research Council Discovery Project Linguistic Prehistory in Mainland Southeast Asia ($210,000)–not taken up
• 2001-4. Australian Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Linguistic Prehistory in Mainland Southeast Asia ($177,000)
• 2000. Australian Research Council Small Research Grant (Faculties Research Scheme) History of Bahnaric Languages ($4,900).
• 1998. University of Melbourne Postgraduate write-up award ($1,500).
• 1997-8. University of Melbourne Postgraduate Scholarship.
• 1995-6. La Trobe University Postgraduate Scholarship.

Publications

Books authored

• 2015. The Palaungic Languages: Classification, Reconstruction and Comparative Lexicon. Munich, Lincom Europa.
• 2010. (with Philip Jenner) Old Khmer Grammar. Canberra, Pacific Linguistics.
• 2009. Classifying the Austroasiatic Languages: history and state of the art. Munich, Lincom Europa.
• 2005. The Katuic Languages: classification, reconstruction and comparative lexicon. Munich, Lincom Europa.
• 2003. (with Pascale Jacq). A Handbook of Comparative Bahnaric: volume 1 — West Bahnaric, Canberra, Pacific Linguistics 551.
• 2000. Proto South Bahnaric: a reconstruction of a Mon-Khmer language of Indo-China. Canberra, Pacific Linguistics 501.
• 2000. (with Pascale Jacq) A Comparative West Bahnaric Dictionary. Munich, Lincom Europa.
• 1999. (with Pascale Jacq) Sapuan (Sepuar). Munich, Lincom Europa.
• 1999. (with Pascale Jacq) Loven (Jruq) Consolidated Lexicon. Munich, Lincom Europa.

Papers, Book chapters, Reviews

• 2015a Austroasiatic dataset for phylogenetic analysis: 2015 version. Mon-Khmer Studies 44.lxviii-ccclvii.
• 2015b Local drift and areal convergence in the Restructuring of Mainland Southeast Asian Languages. In Nicholas Enfield and Bernard Comrie (eds.) Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia: the state of the art. Berlin:DeGruyterMouton (series Pacific Linguistics). pp. 51–81.
• 2015c Review of: Jan-Olof Svantesson, Kàm Ràw (Damrong Tayanin), Kristina Lindell and Håkan Lundström (2014) Dictionary of Kammu Yùan Language and Culture, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 16:2, 202-205, DOI: 10.1080/14442213.2014.961595.
• 2015d Review of: Justin Watkins (2013): Dictionary of WA (2 vols) With Translations into English, Burmese and Chinese.', Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, vol. 8, pp. 1–2.
• 2015e The Austroasiatic language phylum: a typology of phonological restructuring. In Claire Bowern, Bethwyn Evans (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics. Routledge ISBN 978-0-415-52789-7. pp. 675–703.
• 2014/2015a Austroasiatic Classification. In Mathias Jenny & Paul Sidwell (eds.) The handbook of Austroasiatic languages. Leiden, Boston: Brill. pp. 144–220.
• 2014/2015b (with Felix Rau) Austroasiatic Comparative-Historical Reconstruction: an overview. In Mathias Jenny & Paul Sidwell (eds.) The handbook of Austroasiatic languages. Leiden, Boston: Brill. pp. 221–362.
• 2014/2015c Old Khmer. In Mathias Jenny & Paul Sidwell (eds.) The handbook of Austroasiatic languages. Leiden, Boston: Brill. pp. 643–676.
• 2014/2015d (with Kenneth Smith) Sedang. In Mathias Jenny & Paul Sidwell (eds.) The handbook of Austroasiatic languages. Leiden, Boston: Brill. pp. 789–833.
• 2014/2015e (with Kees Jan Bos) Kui Ntua. In Mathias Jenny & Paul Sidwell (eds.) The handbook of Austroasiatic languages. Leiden, Boston: Brill. pp. 837–880.
• 2014/2015f Car Nicobarese. In Mathias Jenny & Paul Sidwell (eds.) The handbook of Austroasiatic languages. Leiden, Boston: Brill. pp. 1229–1265.
• 2014/2015f (with Mathias Jenny) 'Editor's Introduction', The Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages, Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 3–12.

[Note: citation date for the Brill Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages is ambiguous; the publisher lists publication date December 2014 but copyright 2015]

• 2014a Proto-Khasian: An emerging reconstruction. In Gwendolyn Hyslop, Linda Konnerth, Stephen Morey & Priyankoo Sarmah (eds) North East Indian Linguistics 6. Canberra; Asia Pacific Linguistics. pp. 149–166.
• 2014b (with Harold Koch, Robert Mailhammer, Robert Blust, Clair Bowern, Don Daniels, Alexandre François, Simon Greenhill, Brian Joseph, Lawrence Reid, Malcolm Ross) Research priorities in historical-comparative linguistics: a view from Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Diachronica 31:267–278.
• 2014d Khmuic classification and homeland. Mon-Khmer Studies 43.1:47–56
• 2013a Southeast Asian mainland: linguistic history. In The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, edited by Immanuel Ness. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. doi:10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm833 pp. 259–269.
• 2013b Expressives in Austroasiatic. In The Aesthetics of Grammar: Sound and Meaning in the Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia, edited by Jeffrey P. Williams. New York, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-00712-3. pp. 17–35.
• 2013c Issues in Austroasiatic Classification. Language and Linguistics Compass 7/8 (2013): 437–457.
• 2013d (with Nathaniel Cheeseman & Jennifer Herington) Bahnaric linguistic bibliography with selected annotations. Mon-Khmer Studies 42: xxxiv–xlvii.
• 2013e (with K. S. Nagaraja & Simon Greenhill) A Lexicostatistical Study of the Khasian Languages: Khasi, Pnar, Lyngngam, and War. Mon-Khmer Studies 42:1–11
• 2013f (with Supawan Pingjai and Shunishi Ishihara) A Likelihood Ratio-based forensic voice comparison using formant trajectories of the Thai diphthongs. Proceedings of 2013 International Congress on Acoustics. Acoustical Society of America, pp. 315–343.
• 2011a. Katuic-Bahnaric: Austroasiatic sub-family or convergence area?. In Sophana Srichampa, Paul Sidwell & Kenneth Gregerson (eds.) Austroasiatic Studies: papers from the ICAAL4: Mon-Khmer Studies Journal Special Issue No. 3. Dallas, SIL International; Canberra, Pacific Linguistics; Salaya, Mahidol University.
• 2011b. Comparative Mon-Khmer Linguistics in the 20th Century: where from, where to?. Austro-Asiatic Linguistics: In memory of R. Elangaiyan. K.S. Nagaraja (ed.) (Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Austroasiatic Languages). Mysore, Central Institute of Indian Languages. pp. 38–104
• 2011. (with Roger Blench) The Austroasiatic Urheimat: the Southeastern Riverine Hypothesis. In The Dynamics of Human Diversity. N. J. Enfield (ed.). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 315–343.
• 2011. (with Jerold A. Edmondson, Kenneth Gregerson) The North Bahnaric Clade: A Computational Approach. In Sophana Srichampa, Paul Sidwell & Kenneth Gregerson (eds.) Austroasiatic Studies: papers from the ICAAL4: Mon-Khmer Studies Journal Special Issue No. 3. Dallas, SIL International; Canberra, Pacific Linguistics; Salaya, Mahidol University. pp. 23–37
• 2011. (with Roger Blench). Is Shom Pen a Distinct Branch of Austroasiatic? In Sophana Srichampa, Paul Sidwell & Kenneth Gregerson (eds.) Austroasiatic Studies: papers from the ICAAL4: Mon-Khmer Studies Journal Special Issue No. 3. Dallas, SIL International; Canberra, Pacific Linguistics; Salaya, Mahidol University. pp. 90–101
• 2010a. The Austroasiatic central riverine hypothesis. Вопросы языкового родства/Journal of Language Relationship 4:117–134
• 2010b. What can the Mon-Khmer lexical borrowings in Acehnese tell us? In John Bowden, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann and Malcolm Ross (eds.) A journey through Austronesian and Papuan linguistic and cultural space: papers in honour of Andrew K. Pawley. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, PL-615, pp. 271–282.
• 2010c. Three Austroasiatic branches and the ASJP.
• 2009b. How many branches in a tree? Cua and East (North) Bahnaric. In Bethwyn Evans (ed). Discovering history through language. Papers in honour of Malcolm Ross. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, PL-605. pp. 193–204.
• 2009c. Proto-Mon-Khmer Vocalism: moving on from Shorto's 'alternances'. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. 1:205–214
• 2008. The Khom script of the Kommodam Rebellion. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, pp. 15–25.
• 2008. Issues in the Morphological Reconstruction of Proto-Mon-Khmer. In Claire Bowern, Bethwyn Evans and Luisa Miceli (eds.) Morphology and Language History in honour of Harold Koch, Amsterdam, John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 251–265.
• 2008. On the sources of loans in the Proto-Chamic lexicon. In SEALS XIV(Volume 1) Papers from the 14th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (2004), edited by Wilaiwan Khanittanan.& Paul Sidwell, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University. pp. 261–267.
• 2007a. The Mon-Khmer Substrate in Chamic: Chamic, Bahnaric and Katuic Contact. In SEALS XII Papers from the 12th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (2002), edited by Ratree Wayland et al.. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University. pp. 113–128.
• 2007b. (with Pascale Jacq) Orientation Origins: the Source of Jru' Cardinals. In SEALS XII Papers from the 12th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (2002), edited by Ratree Wayland et al. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University. pp. 101–106.
• 2006. Preface to A Mon-Khmer Comparative Dictionary by Harry Shorto. Canberra, Pacific Linguistics PL 579.
• 2005a. Acehnese and the Aceh-Chamic Language Family. In Chamic and beyond: Studies in mainland Austronesian languages, edited by Anthony Grant and Paul Sidwell, Canberra, Pacific Linguistics PL 569. pp211–246.
• 2005b. (with Anthony Grant) Editor's Preface to Chamic and beyond: Studies in mainland Austronesian languages, edited by Anthony Grant and Paul Sidwell, Canberra, Pacific Linguistics PL 569. ppix-xvii.
• 2005c. Proto Katuic Phonology and implications for sub-grouping. In SEALS XV: papers from the 15th meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, edited by Paul Sidwell, Canberra, Pacific Linguistics PL E1. pp193–204.
• 2004. (with Greg Aumann) Subgrouping of Mienic Languages: some observations. Papers from the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society: SEALS XI.
• 2004. A note on the reconstruction of Proto West Bahnaric and investigation of early West Bahnaric-Katuic contact. Mon-Khmer Studies, 33:159–166.
• 2002. Classification of the Bahnaric Languages: a comprehensive review. Mon-Khmer Studies, Vol. 32. Mahidol University, Thailand.
• 2002. (with Pascale Jacq) Austroasiatic Languages. Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. Massachusetts: Berkshire Publishing.
• 2002. (with Pascale Jacq) Mon-Khmer Languages. Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. Massachusetts: Berkshire Publishing.
• 2002. Reconstruction & Classification: progress with the Bahnaric (Mon-Khmer) languages. In The Linguist's Linguist: a collection of papers in honour of Alexis Manaster Ramer. Edited by Fabrice Cavoto. Munich, Lincom Europa.
• 2000a. Comments on La Vaughn H. Hayes 'On the Origins of Affricates in Austric'. Mother Tongue 6:119–121.
• 2000b. (with Pascale Jacq) Talieng. s.l., s.n., ISBN 978-3-89586-561-9
• 1999. A report on the status and distribution of Bahnaric languages and speakers on the Boloven Plateau, Lao PDR. History of Language 5.1:10–18.
• 1999. (with Stefan Georg, Alexis Manaster-Ramer, Peter Michalove) Telling general linguists about Altaic. Journal of Linguistics 35:65–98.
• 1999. The Austroasiatic numerals 1 to 10 from a historical and typological perspective. In Numeral Types and Changes Worldwide. Edited by Jadranka Gvozdanovic. Amsterdam, John Benjamins Publishing Company. 253–271.
• 1999. The Role of Historiography in Evaluating the results of Comparative Linguistic Work: a case study. In The Emergence of the Modern Language Sciences: Studies on the transition from historical-comparative to structural linguistics, in honour of E.F.K. Koerner. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company. 597–608.
• 1998. (with Alexis Manaster-Ramer & Alexander Vovin) On body part terms as evidence for the Altaic hypothesis. Ural-Altaische Jahrbuecher 15.
• 1997. (with Alexis Manaster-Ramer) The Altaic Debate and the Question of Cognate Numerals. Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 87:153-75.
• 1997. (with Alexis Manaster-Ramer) The Truth about Strahlenberg's classification of the languages of Northeastern Eurasia. Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 87:139–160.
• 1995. Bolyu is a Mon-Khmer language even if Benedict says so! La Trobe University Working Papers in Linguistics 8:121–133.
• 1994. The Proto-Bahnaric Vowel System: a revised model. University of Melbourne Working Papers in Linguistics 14:71–75.
• 1995. Proto-Jeh-Halang and Proto-North-Bahnaric Revisited. La Trobe University Working Papers in Linguistics 7:133–142.
• 1993. The Proto-Bahnaric Vowel System: a new theory. La Trobe University Working Papers in Linguistics 6:137–142

Conference Presentations (partial list)

• 2015. Integrating Inferences About Our Past New Findings And Current Issues In The Peopling Of The Pacific And Southeast Asia, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Paper read: Phylogeny, innovations, and correlations in the prehistory of Austroasiatic.
• 2015. Closing conference of the Department of Linguistics of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Leipzig. Paper read: A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the Austroasiatic languages.
• 2015. SEALS 25. Chiang Mai. Paper read: Contact and convergence in Northern Austroasiatic.
• 2014: 24th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Yangon University, Yangon, Myanmar. Paper read: The classification of Danaw, a Palaungic Language.
• 2013: Organizing Committee, Fifth International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics, ANU, Canberra. Paper read: Proto-Khmuic: reconstruction and subgrouping.
• 2013: 23rd Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. Paper read: Creaky and Glottalized syllables in Katuic languages: analysis of the Huffman recordings?
• 2012: Mainland Southeast Asian Languages: The State of the Art in 2012, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Linguistics, Leipzig, Germany. Paper read: Diversity, discontinuity and asymmetry in the typological restructuring of Mainland Southeast Asian languages.
• 2012: Austroasiatic workshop, 45th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages & Linguistics, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Paper read: Sketch of Sedang.
• 2012: : 22nd Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Argay, France. Paper read: Should we reconstruct a decimal or non-decimal counting system for proto-Austroasiatic?
• 2011: 20th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHLXX), Osaka, Japan. Papers read: Austroasiatic branching: New computational approaches and results, and Sub-Branching or Convergence? Monophyletic versus paraphyletic groupings in Austroasiatic.
• 2011: 21st Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, May 11–13, 2011. Paper read: Proto-Khasian (or -War-Khasi); reconstruction and classification.
• 2010: The First Conference on ASJP and Language Prehistory, MPI Leipzig, September 17–19, 2010. Invited Speaker, paper read: Three Austroasiatic Branches and the ASJP.
• 2010: 20th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, University of Zurich, June 10–11, 2010. Paper read: Proto Palaungic phonology: reconstructing vowel lengths and qualities in a partially restructured system.
• 2009: Organizing Committee, Forth International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics, Bangkok, Thailand, on October 29–30, 2009. Paper read: Austroasiatic homeland and family diversity.
• 2009: 19th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City. Plenary Address read: The Austroasiatic Central Riverine Hypothesis.
• 2008: 35th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages & Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Paper read: Was there ever an Austroasiatic substrate in central China?
• 2008: Society for the History of Linguistics in the Pacific (SHLP), Inaugural Conference, ANU, 1 August. Paper read: Language classification: failure, confusion and success in mainland and insular Southeast Asia.
• 2008: 18th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi. Paper read: Is Mon-Khmer dead? Long liveAustroasiatic!
• 2007: Third International Conference of Austroasiatic Linguistics, Pune, India. Paper read: Comparative Mon-Khmer Linguistics in the 20th Century: Where From, Where To?
• 2007: 17th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, University of Maryland, USA. Paper read: Proto-Mon-Khmer Vocalism: moving forward from Shorto's "Alternances".
• 2006: 16th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Atma Jaya Catholic University, Jakarta. Paper read: Austroasiatic Creaky voice: towards an historical explanation.
• 2005 Organizer: 15th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Australian National University, Canberra. Paper read: Proto Katuic Phonology and implications for sub-grouping.
• 2004 2nd Asia Lexicography Conference, Payap University, Chiang Mai. Paper read: A project to establish an on-line Mon-Khmer comparative database and language documentation repository as a basis for international research cooperation.
• 2004 14th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Thammasat University, Bangkok. Paper read: The Origins of the Chamic Lexicon: evidence for ancient lexification, and subsequent back-borrowing into MK languages.
• 2003. 36th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics. Paper read: Etymologising the MK lexicon in Proto-Chamic.
• 2002 35th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages & Linguistics, Arizona State University. Paper read: Nasal Epenthesis and Consequences for Reconstruction in MK.
• 2002 6th Australian Linguistic Institute, Maquarie University. Course presenter: Comparative reconstruction and language change, a practical introduction
• 2002 12th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Northern Illinois University, De Kalb. Paper read: Reconciling the Mon-Khmer substrate in Chamic with the history of neighboring languages.
• 1996 29th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Uni. of Leiden. Paper read: A lexicostatistical classification of the Bahnaric language

External links

• ANU page
• Mon-Khmer Languages Project, a project headed by Sidwell