Department of Linguistics, 370 Temple Street, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2010 Dec 12;365(1559):3845-54. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0013.
This paper presents an overview of the current state of historical linguistics in Australian languages. Australian languages have been important in theoretical debates about the nature of language change and the possibilities for reconstruction and classification in areas of intensive diffusion. Here are summarized the most important outstanding questions for Australian linguistic prehistory; I also present a case study of the Karnic subgroup of Pama-Nyungan, which illustrates the problems for classification in Australian languages and potential approaches using phylogenetic methods.
本文概述了澳大利亚语言历史语言学的现状。澳大利亚语言在关于语言变化的本质以及在广泛扩散领域中的重建和分类可能性的理论争论中具有重要意义。这里总结了澳大利亚语言史前史最重要的悬而未决的问题；我还介绍了 Pama-Nyungan 语族 Karnic 分支的案例研究，该研究说明了澳大利亚语言分类中的问题以及使用系统发育方法的潜在方法。
