The Outrigger and the Noun Phrase: How the Austronesian Language Family Conquered the Pacific
How did one language family colonize a third of the planet, from Madagascar to Easter Island? The answer lies in a revolutionary piece of technology—the outrigger canoe—and an even more powerful tool: the language itself. This is the story of how shared words for boats, crops, and kinship became the invisible threads that wove together the vast cultural tapestry of the Pacific Ocean.
