I am a linguist specialized in the languages of Japan, with a focus on the highly endangered and still underdocumented languages of the Ryūkyū Islands. I research how the languages of Japan have evolved through time and how they can tell us about the human prehistory of the Japanese islands. I also work on quantifying the complexity of phonological and morphological systems of languages with computational tools.
I work as a CNRS research scientist (tenured) at the Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale (CRLAO) in Paris, France. I also teach at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco).
Main research interests
- historical-comparative linguistics
- endangered languages
- computational and quantitative approaches to phonology and morphology
- languages of Japan (Japanese, Ryukyuan, Hachijo…)
Representative publications (chronological order)
- Pellard, Thomas & Sagart, Laurent & Jacques, Guillaume. 2018. L’indo-européen n’est pas un mythe. Bulletin de la Société Linguistique de Paris 113(1). 79–102.
https://doi.org/10.2143/BSL.113.1.3285465
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01871582
- Pellard, Thomas & Yamada, Masahiro. 2017. Verb morphology and conjugation classes in Dunan (Yonaguni). In Kiefer, Ferenc & Blevins, James P. & Bartos, Huba (eds.), Perspectives on morphological organization, 31–49. Leiden: Brill.
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004342934_004
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01493096
- Pellard, Thomas. 2016. Why /r/ is not a special, empty consonant in Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 25(4). 351–383.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-016-9147-4
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01356834
- Pellard, Thomas. 2015. The linguistic archeology of the Ryukyu Islands. In Heinrich, Patrick & Miyara, Shinsho & Shimoji, Michinori (eds.), Handbook of the Ryukyuan languages: History, structure, and use, 13–37. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614511151.13
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01289257
- Pellard, Thomas. 2013. Ryukyuan perspectives on the Proto-Japonic vowel system. In Frellesvig, Bjarke & Sells, Peter (eds.), Japanese/Korean linguistics, vol. 20, 81–96. Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01289288
Recent talks
- Lévêque, Dimitri & Pellard, Thomas. 2019. Advancing the study of endangered languages with computational tools for morphology: The case of Asama verb paradigms. Paper presented at LIFT 2019: Scientific meeting of the “ Computational, formal & field linguistics ” research group. Orléans. 28–29 November 2019.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02428825
- Pellard, Thomas. 2019. Gengogaku kara mita Ryūkyū rettō e no hito no idōshi (言語学から見た琉球列島への人の移動誌) [The history of human migrations to the Ryukyu Islands seen from the perspective of linguistics]. Paper presented at Ryūkyū rettō e no hito to bunka no idō (琉球列島への人と文化の移動) [The migrations of humans and culture in the Ryukyu Islands]. Naha. 16–17 November 2019.
- Lévêque, Dimitri & Pellard, Thomas. 2019. Description of verbal morphology of Asama: A realizational and implemented approach. Paper presented at International Symposium of Morphology 2019. Paris: Université Paris Diderot. 25–27 September 2019.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02295412
- Pellard, Thomas. 2019. Les origines du japonais.Strasbourg: Université de Strasbourg. 30 January 2019.
- Pellard, Thomas. 2018. Nichiryū shogo no keitō bunrui ni tsuite (日琉諸語の系統分類と分岐について) [On the phylogenetic classification and the separation of the Japonic languages]. Paper presented at Fīrudo to bunken kara miru Nichiryū shogo no keitō to rekishi (フィールドと文献から見る日琉諸語の系統と歴史) [Phylesis and the history of the Japonic languages from philological and field linguistic perspectives]. Tachikawa: National Institute for Japanese Language & Linguistics. 22–23 December 2018.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01964852