Abstract
This project has two complementary and interlocking aims: 1) Development and testing of linguistic applications of computational biological methods for constructing tree and/or network relationships between languages on the basis of clusters of multiple structural features (so-called structural phylogenetics), in order to detect deep-time connections of genealogical and/or contact-based nature. 2) Search for linguistic signals of population movements and settlements in Sahul (Australia and New Guinea) and surrounding islands. The area is known for early human colonization (50,000 BP) and extreme linguistic diversity among the 800 Papuan and 240 Australian languages, separated by rising sea-levels at the beginning of the Holocene (approximately 9000 BP).