Australian languages and interdisciplinary approaches to the past

This chapter discusses the role that Australian languages can play in building an integrated history of the Australian past, and the challenges that must be overcome in order to make genuine progress. We first discuss linguistics internal issues that have arisen in the course of reconstructing a picture of the linguistic past more specifically – e.g. missing information, paucity of sound change and the effects of language contact. We then go on to present a case study to illustrate some of the issues encountered in integrating interdisciplinary findings for a broader reconstruction of the past - focusing on linguistics and genetics in the context of Pama-Nyungan – and how these may best be addressed.