Phonological Fossils: Machine Learning Detection of Non-Mainstream Vocabulary in Sulawesi Basic Lexicon

ArXi:2604.00023v1 Announce Type: new Basic vocabulary in many Sulawesi Austronesian languages includes forms resisting reconstruction to any proto-form with phonological patterns inconsistent with inherited roots, but whether this non-conforming vocabulary represents pre-Austronesian substrate or independent innovation has not been tested computationally. We combine rule-based cognate subtraction with a machine learning classifier trained on phonological features.