A world of words

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Renward Brandstetter (1860–1942), a Swiss linguist, significantly advanced our understanding of ‘Indonesian’ languages, now known as Austronesian languages. He utilized texts, dictionaries, and grammars from over 30 languages to propose a proto-language (Urindonesisch) for this family and systematically compared their sound systems and morphology. Following the First World War, Brandstetter was motivated by a desire for peace and equality among nations. Through his series “We peoples of the Indonesian earth,” he highlighted the richness of “Indonesian” languages and literatures, asserting their equality with Indo-European languages. His contributions have been pivotal in the field of Austronesian linguistics. This volume offers a detailed analysis of Brandstetter’s work for the first time. The articles stem from a conference held in Lucerne in 2010, marking the 150th anniversary of his birth, and encompass the diverse areas he explored over 60 years, including Swiss-German dialects, historical and comparative linguistics, Austronesian languages, Malay and Buginese literature, and the cultural and language history of the Swiss canton of Lucerne.