Lecture | Language and the Human Past
Historical implications of argument marking patterns in the Guaporé-Mamoré area
- Date
- Wednesday 27 May 2026
- Time
- Serie
- Language and the Human Past
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.18
Abstract
To what extent can we use a high-resolution comparative linguistics approach to open a window into human history when we lack tangible historical information? The Guaporé-Mamoré region, overlapping significant territory in the Bolivian and Brazilian lowlands, is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse regions in the continent. In spite of that, we know extremely little about the history of a vast majority of the languages, and the indigenous nations who speak them, before the 20th century. In this talk I will discuss the results of my current research into the properties of arguments in Guaporé-Mamoré languages in order to triangulate historical information about the nations of this region.