Austronesian languages

Not to be confused with Austroasiatic languages.

"Austronesian" redirects here. For other uses, see Austronesian (disambiguation).

Austronesian
Geographic distribution:	Maritime Southeast Asia, Oceania, Madagascar, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Andaman archipelago
Linguistic classification:	One of the world's primary language families
Proto-language:	Proto-Austronesian
Subdivisions:	Rukai (Formosan) Tsou (Formosan) Puyuma (Formosan) Nuclear Austronesian      Other Formosan languages      (several primary branches)       Malayo-Polynesian
ISO 639-2 / 5:	map
Glottolog:	aust1307
Distribution of Austronesian languages

The Austronesian languages is a language family that is widely dispersed throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, with a few members on continental Asia. Austronesian languages are spoken by about 386 million people, making it the fifth-largest language family by number of speakers, behind only the Indo-European languages, the Sino-Tibetan languages, the Niger-Congo languages, and the Afroasiatic languages. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger–Congo, and Afroasiatic as one of the best-established language families. Major Austronesian languages with the highest number of speakers are Malay (Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanese, and Filipino (Tagalog).

Otto Dempwolff was the first researcher to extensively explore Austronesian using the comparative method. Another German, Wilhelm Schmidt, coined the German word austronesisch which comes from Latin auster "south wind" plus Greek nêsos "island". The name Austronesian was formed from the same roots. The family is aptly named, as the vast majority of Austronesian languages are spoken on islands: only a few languages, such as Malay and the Chamic languages, are indigenous to mainland Asia. Many Austronesian languages have very few speakers, but the major Austronesian languages are spoken by tens of millions of people and one Austronesian language, Malay, is spoken by 250 million people, making it the 8th most spoken language in the world. Twenty or so Austronesian languages are official in their respective countries (see the list of major and official Austronesian languages).

Different sources count languages differently, but Austronesian and Niger–Congo are the two largest language families in the world, each having roughly one-fifth of the total languages counted in the world. The geographical span of Austronesian was the largest of any language family before the spread of Indo-European in the colonial period, ranging from Madagascar off the southeastern coast of Africa to Easter Island in the eastern Pacific. Hawaiian, Rapa Nui, and Malagasy (spoken on Madagascar) are the geographic outliers of the Austronesian family.

According to Robert Blust (1999), Austronesian is divided in several primary branches, all but one of which are found exclusively on Taiwan. The Formosan languages of Taiwan are grouped into as many as nine first-order subgroups of Austronesian. All Austronesian languages spoken outside Taiwan (including its offshore Yami language) belong to the Malayo-Polynesian branch, sometimes called Extra-Formosan.

Most Austronesian languages lack a long history of written attestation, making the feat of reconstructing earlier stages – up to distant Proto-Austronesian – all the more remarkable. The oldest inscription in the Cham language, the Đông Yên Châu inscription, dated to the mid-6th century at the latest, is also the first attestation of any Austronesian language.

Structure

It is difficult to make generalizations about the languages that make up a family as diverse as Austronesian. Speaking very broadly, the Austronesian languages can be divided into three groups of languages: Philippine-type languages, Indonesian-type languages and post-Indonesian type (Ross 2002). The first group includes, besides the languages of the Philippines, the Austronesian languages of Taiwan, Sabah, North Sulawesi and Madagascar. It is primarily characterized by the retention of the original system of Philippine-type voice alternations, where typically three or four verb voices determine which semantic role the "subject"/"topic" expresses (it may express either the actor, the patient, the location and the beneficiary, or various other circumstancial roles such as instrument and concomitant). The phenomenon has frequently been referred to as focus (not to be confused with the usual sense of that term in linguistics). Furthermore, the choice of voice is influenced by the definiteness of the participants. The word order has a strong tendency to be verb-initial. In contrast, the more innovative Indonesian-type languages, which are particularly represented in Malaysia and western Indonesia, have reduced the voice system to a contrast between only two voices (actor voice and "undergoer" voice), but these are supplemented by applicative morphological devices (originally two: the more direct *-i and more oblique *-an/-[a]kən), which serve to modify the semantic role of the "undergoer". They are also characterized by the presence of preposed clitic pronouns. Unlike the Philippine type, these languages mostly tend towards verb-second word-orders. A number of languages, such as the Batak languages, Old Javanese, Balinese, Sasak and several Sulawesi languages seem to represent an intermediate stage between these two types. Finally, in some languages, which Ross calls "post-Indonesian", the original voice system has broken down completely and the voice-marking affixes no longer preserve their functions.

The Austronesian languages tend to use reduplication (repetition of all or part of a word, such as wiki-wiki or agar-agar), and, like many East and Southeast Asian languages, most have highly restrictive phonotactics, with generally small numbers of phonemes and predominantly consonant–vowel syllables.

Lexicon

The Austronesian language family has been established by the linguistic comparative method on the basis of cognate sets, sets of words similar in sound and meaning which can be shown to be descended from the same ancestral word in Proto-Austronesian according to regular rules. Some cognate sets are very stable. The word for eye in many Austronesian languages is mata (from the most northerly Austronesian languages, Formosan languages such as Bunun and Amis all the way south to Māori). Other words are harder to reconstruct. The word for two is also stable, in that it appears over the entire range of the Austronesian family, but the forms (e.g. Bunun rusya, lusha; Amis tusa; Māori tahi, rua) require some linguistic expertise to recognise. The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database gives word lists (coded for cognateness) for approximately 1000 Austronesian languages.

Classification

The internal structure of the Austronesian languages is complex. The family consists of many similar and closely related languages with large numbers of dialect continua, making it difficult to recognize boundaries between branches. However, it is clear that the greatest genealogical diversity is found among the Formosan languages of Taiwan, and the least diversity among the islands of the Pacific, supporting a dispersal of the family from Taiwan or China. The first comprehensive classification to reflect this was Dyen (1965).

The seminal article in the classification of Formosan—and, by extension, the top-level structure of Austronesian—is Blust (1999). Prominent Formosanists (linguists who specialize in Formosan languages) take issue with some of its details, but it remains the point of reference for current linguistic analyses, and is shown below. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are frequently included within Blust's Eastern Formosan branch due to their shared leveling of proto-Austronesian *t, *C to /t/ and *n, *N to /n/, their shift of *S to /h/, and vocabulary such as *lima "five" which are not attested in other Formosan languages.

There appear to have been two great migrations of Austronesian languages that quickly covered large areas, resulting in multiple local groups with little large-scale structure. The first was Malayo-Polynesian, distributed across the Philippines, Indonesia, and Melanesia. The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages are similar to each other not because of close genealogical relationships, but rather because they reflect strong substratum effects from non-Austronesian languages. The second migration was that of the Oceanic languages into Polynesia and Micronesia (Greenhill, Blust & Gray 2008).

In addition to Malayo-Polynesian, thirteen Formosan families are broadly accepted. Debate centers primarily around the relationships between these families. Of the classifications presented here, Blust (1999) links two families into a Western Plains group, two more in a Northwestern Formosan group, and three into an Eastern Formosan group, while Lee (2008) also links five families into a Northern Formosan group. The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database (2008) accepts Northern, rejects Eastern, links Tsouic and Rukai (two highly divergent languages), and links Malayo-Polynesian with Paiwan in a Paiwanic group. Ross (2009) splits Tsouic, and notes that Tsou, Rukai, and Puyuma fall outside of reconstructions of Proto-Austronesian.

Other studies have presented phonological evidence for a reduced Paiwanic family of Paiwanic, Puyuma, Bunun, Amis, and Malayo-Polynesian, but this is not reflected in vocabulary. The Eastern Formosan peoples Basay, Kavalan, and Amis share a homeland motif that has them coming originally from an island called Sinasay or Sanasay (Li 2004). The Amis, in particular, maintain that they came from the east, and were treated by the Puyuma, amongst whom they settled, as a subservient group (Taylor 1888).

Blust (1999)

Families of Formosan languages before Chinese colonization of Taiwan, per Blust (1999).

Distribution of the Austronesian languages, per Blust (1999).

Austronesian

(clockwise from the southwest)

  Tsouic (Formosan)

• Tsou language.
• Saaroa language.
• Kanakanabu language.

  Western Plains (Formosan)

• Thao language, AKA Sao. Brawbaw and Shtafari dialects.
• Central Western Plains
  • Babuza language: Taokas, Poavosa dialects; old Favorlang language.
  • Papora-Hoanya language: Papora, Hoanya dialects.

  Northwest Formosan

• Saisiyat language: Taai and Tungho dialects.
• Pazeh language AKA Kulun.

  Atayalic (Formosan)

• Atayal language.
• Seediq language: AKA Truku and Tarok.

  East Formosan

• Northern (Kavalanic languages).
  • Basay language: Trobiawa and Linaw–Qauqaut dialects.
  • Kavalan language.
  • Ketagalan language, or Ketangalan.
• Central (Ami).
  • Amis proper.
  • Nataoran language: North Amis.
  • Sakizaya dialect.
• Siraya language.

  Bunun language (Formosan)

  Rukai language (Formosan)

• Mantauran, Tona, and Maga dialects of Rukai are divergent.

  Puyuma language (Formosan)

  Paiwan language (southern tip of Formosa)

  Malayo-Polynesian

Li (2008)

Families of Formosan languages before Chinese colonization, per Li (2008). The three languages in green (Bunun, Puyuma, Paiwan) may form a Southern Formosan branch, but this is uncertain.

This classification retains Blust's East Formosan, and unites the other northern languages. Li proposes a Proto-Formosan (F0) ancestor and equates it with Proto-Austronesian (PAN), following the model in Starosta (1995). Rukai and Tsouic are seen as highly divergent, although the position of Rukai is highly controversial.

• F0: Formosan = Austronesian
  •   Rukai
    • Mantauran
    • Maga–Tona, Budai–Labuan–Taromak
  • F1
    •   Central (Tsouic)
      • Tsou
      • Southern Tsouic
        • Saaroa
        • Kanakanabu
    • F2
      •   Northern Formosan
        • Northwestern (Plains)
          • Saisiyat–Kulon–Pazeh
          • Western
            • Thao
            • West Coast (Papora–Hoanya–Babuza–Taokas)
        • Atayalic
          • Squliq Atayal
          • Ts'ole' Atayal (= C'uli')
          • Seediq
      •   East Formosan
        • Kavalan–Basay
        • Siraya–Amis
      • ? Southern [uncertain]
        •   Bunun
          • Isbukun
          • Northern and Central (Takitudu and Takbanuaz)
        •   Paiwan–Puyuma [uncertain]

Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database (2008)

Families of Formosan languages before Chinese colonization, per the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database (Greenhill, Blust & Gray 2008).

This investigation keeps Li's Northern Formosan, but breaks up Blust's East Formosan, and suggests Paiwan may be the closest to Malayo-Polynesian. It also unites Tsouic and Rukai, the two most divergent languages in Li.

Austronesian

  Kavalanic

This is an obvious, low-level grouping

• Basay (Trobiawan, Linaw–Qauqaut dialects)
• Kavalan
• Ketagalan

  Northern Formosan

These groups are linked with an estimated 97% probability.

• Thao (AKA Sao. Brawbaw, Shtafari dialects)
• Western Plains
  • Babuza (AKA Favorlang. Taokas, Poavosa dialects)
  • Papora-Hoanya (Papora, Hoanya dialects)
• Saisiyat (Taai, Tungho dialects)
• Pazeh (AKA Kulun)
• Atayalic
  • Atayal (Squliq, C’uli’)
  • Seediq (AKA Truku, Taroko)

  Ami

Another low-level grouping

• Sakizaya
• Nataoran (North Amis)
• Amis

  Bunun

• Bunun

  Tsou–Rukai

Tsou and Rukai are connected with moderate confidence, estimated at 85% probability.

• Tsouic
  • Tsou
  • Saaroa
  • Kanakanabu
• Rukai (Mantauran, Tona, and Maga dialects are divergent)

  Siraya

• Siraya (Taivoan, Makatao dialects)

  Puyuma

• Puyuma

  Paiwanic

Malayo-Polynesian and Paiwan are linked with a low level of confidence (74%).

• Paiwan (southern tip of Formosa)
• Malayo-Polynesian

Ross (2009)

Families of Formosan languages before Chinese colonization, per Ross (2009).

In 2009, Malcolm Ross proposed a new classification of the Austronesian language family based on morphological evidence from various Formosan languages. He proposed that the current reconstructions for Proto-Austronesian actually correspond to an intermediate stage, which he terms "Proto-Nuclear Austronesian". Notably, Ross' classification does not support the unity of the Tsouic languages, instead considering the Southern Tsouic languages of Kanakanavu and Saaroa to be a separate branch. This supports Chang's (2006) claim that Tsouic is not a valid group.

Austronesian

  Rukai

• (Mantauran and Tona–Maga dialects are divergent)

  Puyuma

  Tsou

  Nuclear Austronesian

• Subdivisions not addressed, apart from Saaroa–Kanakanabu being separate from Tsou.

Major languages

Main article: List of major and official Austronesian languages

Austronesian comparison chart

Below is a chart comparing thirteen words in Austronesian languages; spoken in Taiwan, the Philippines, the Mariana Islands, Indonesia, Malaysia, East Timor, Papua, New Zealand, Hawaii, Madagascar, Borneo and Tuvalu.

English	one	two	three	four	person	house	dog	road	day	new	we	what	fire
Tetum	ida	rua	tolu	haat	ema	uma	asu	dalan	loron	foun	ita	saida	ahi
Amis	cecay	tosa	tolo	sepat	tamdaw	luma	wacu	lalan	cidal	faroh	kita	uman	namal
Puyuma	sa	dua	telu	pat	taw	rumah	soan	dalan	wari	vekar	mi	amanai	apue, asi
Tagalog	isa	dalawa	tatlo	apat	tao	bahay	aso	daan	araw	bago	tayo	ano	apoy
Rinconada Bikol	əsad	darwā	tolō	əpat	tawō	baləy	ayam	raran	aldəw	bāgo	kitā	onō	kalayō
Cebuano	usa, isa	duha	tulo	upat	tawo	balay	iro	dalan	adlaw	bag-o	kita	unsa	kalayo
Waray	usa	duha	tulo	upat	tawo	balay	ayam, ido	dalan	adlaw	bag-o	kita	anu	kalayo
Hiligaynon	isa	duha	tatlo	apat	tawo	balay	ido	dalan	adlaw	bag-o	kita	ano	kalayo
Aklanon	isaea, sambilog	daywa	tatlo	ap-at	tawo	baeay	ayam	daean	adlaw	bag-o	kita	ano	kaeayo
Kinaray-a	sara	darwa	tatlo	apat	tawo	balay	ayam	dalan	adlaw	bag-o	kita	ano	kalayo
Tausug	hambuuk	duwa	tu	upat	tau	bay	iru'	dan	adlaw	ba-gu	kitaniyu	unu	kayu
Maranao	isa	dowa	t'lo	phat	taw	walay	aso	lalan	gawi'e	bago	tano	tonaa	apoy
Kapampangan	metung	adwa	atlu	apat	tau	bale	asu	dalan	aldo	bayu	ikatamu	nanu	api
Pangasinan	sakey	dua, duara	talo, talora	apat, apatira	too	abong	aso	dalan	ageo	balo	sikatayo	anto	pool
Ilokano	maysa	dua	tallo	uppat	tao	balay	aso	dalan	aldaw	baro	datayo	ania	apoy
Ivatan	asa	dadowa	tatdo	apat	tao	vahay	chito	rarahan	araw	va-yo	yaten	ango	apoy
Ibanag	tadday	dua	tallu	appa'	tolay	balay	kitu	dalan	aggaw	bagu	sittam	anni	afi
Yogad	tata	addu	tallu	appat	tolay	binalay	atu	daddaman	agaw	bagu	sikitam	gani	afuy
Gaddang	antet	addwa	tallo	appat	tolay	balay	atu	dallan	aw	bawu	ikkanetam	sanenay	afuy
Tboli	sotu	lewu	tlu	fat	tau	gunu	ohu	lan	kdaw	lomi	tekuy	tedu	ofih
Malay	satu	dua	tiga	empat	orang	rumah, balai	anjing	jalan	hari	baru	kita	apa, anu	api
Old Javanese	esa, tunggal	rwa, kalih	tĕlu, tiga	pat, sakawan	wwang	umah	asu	dalan	dina	hañar, añar	kami	apa, aparan	apuy, agni
Javanese	siji, setunggal	loro, kalih	tĕlu, tiga	papat, sekawan	uwong, tiyang, priyantun	omah, griya, dalem	asu, sĕgawon	dalan, gili	dina, dinten	anyar, énggal	awaké dhéwé, kula panjenengan	apa, punapa	gĕni, latu, brama
Sundanese	hiji	dua	tilu	opat	urang	imah	anjing	jalan	poe	anyar, enggal	arurang	naon	seuneu
Acehnese	sa	duwa	lhèë	peuët	ureuëng	rumoh, balèë	asèë	ret	uroë	barô	(geu)tanyoë	peuë	apuy
Minangkabau	ciek	duo	tigo	ampek	urang	rumah	anjiang	labuah, jalan	hari	baru	awak	apo	api
Lampungese	sai	khua	telu	pak	jelema	lamban	kaci	ranlaya	khani	baru	kham	api	apui
Buginese	sedi	dua	tellu	eppa	tau	bola	asu	lalen	esso	baru	idi	aga	api
Temuan	satuk	duak	tigak	empat	uwang, eang	gumah, umah	anying, koyok	jalan	aik, haik	bahauk	kitak	apak	apik
Bataknese	sada	dua	tolu	opat	halak	jabu	biang	dalan	ari	baru	hita	aha	api
Kelantan-Pattani	so	duwo	tigo	pak	oghe	ghumoh, dumoh	anjing	jale	aghi	baghu	kito	gapo	api
Chamorro	håcha, maisa	hugua	tulu	fatfat	taotao	guma	ga'lågu	chålan	ha'åni	nuebu	hita	håfa	guafi
Motu	ta, tamona	rua	toi	hani	tau	ruma	sisia	dala	dina	matamata	ita, ai	dahaka	lahi
Maori	tahi	rua	toru	wha	tangata	whare	kuri	ara	ra	hou	taua	aha	ahi
Tuvaluan	tasi	lua	tolu	fá	toko	fale	kuli	ala, tuu	aso	fou	tāua	a	afi
Hawaiian	kahi	lua	kolu	hā	kanaka	hale	'īlio	ala	ao	hou	kākou	aha	ahi
Banjarese	asa	duwa	talu	ampat	urang	rūmah	hadupan	heko	hǎri	hanyar	kami	apa	api
Malagasy	isa	roa	telo	efatra	olona	trano	alika	lalana	andro	vaovao	isika	inona	afo
Dusun	iso	duo	tolu	apat	tulun	walai, lamin	tasu	ralan	tadau	wagu	tokou	onu/nu	tapui
Kadazan	iso	duvo	tohu	apat	tuhun	hamin	tasu	lahan	tadau	vagu	tokou	onu, nunu	tapui
Rungus	iso	duvo	tolu, tolzu	apat	tulun, tulzun	valai, valzai	tasu	dalan	tadau	vagu	tokou	nunu	tapui, apui
Sungai/Tambanuo	ido	duo	tolu	opat	lobuw	waloi	asu	ralan	runat	wagu	toko	onu	apui
Iban	satu, sa, siti, sigi	dua	tiga	empat	orang, urang	rumah	ukui, uduk	jalai	hari	baru	kitai	nama	api
Sarawak Malay	satu, sigek	dua	tiga	empat	orang	rumah	asuk	jalan	ari	baru	kita	apa	api
Terengganuan	se	duwe	tige	pak	oghang	ghumoh, dumoh	anjing	jalang	aghi	baghu	kite	mende, ape, gape, nape	api
Kanayatn	sa	dua	talu	ampat	urakng	rumah	asu'	jalatn	ari	baru	kami', diri'	ahe	api

History

Further information: Austronesian peoples#Migration and dispersion

The protohistory of the Austronesian people can be traced farther back through time than can that of the Proto-Austronesian language. From the standpoint of historical linguistics, the home (in linguistic terminology, Urheimat) of the Austronesian languages is the main island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa; on this island the deepest divisions in Austronesian are found, among the families of the native Formosan languages. According to Robert Blust, the Formosan languages form nine of the ten primary branches of the Austronesian language family Blust (1999). Comrie (2001:28) noted this when he wrote:

Austronesian languages expansion map. Periods are based on archeological studies, though the association of the archeological record and linguistic reconstructions is disputed.

... the internal diversity among the... Formosan languages... is greater than that in all the rest of Austronesian put together, so there is a major genetic split within Austronesian between Formosan and the rest... Indeed, the genetic diversity within Formosan is so great that it may well consist of several primary branches of the overall Austronesian family.

At least since Sapir (1968), linguists have generally accepted that the chronology of the dispersal of languages within a given language family can be traced from the area of greatest linguistic variety to that of the least. For example, English in North America has large numbers of speakers, but relatively low dialectal diversity, while English in Great Britain has much higher diversity; such low linguistic variety by Sapir's thesis suggests a more recent origin of English in North America. While some scholars suspect that the number of principal branches among the Formosan languages may be somewhat less than Blust's estimate of nine (e.g. Li 2006), there is little contention among linguists with this analysis and the resulting view of the origin and direction of the migration. For a recent dissenting analysis, see (Peiros 2004).

To get an idea of the original homeland of the Austronesian people, scholars can probe evidence from archaeology and genetics. Studies from the science of genetics have produced conflicting outcomes. Some researchers find evidence for a proto-Austronesian homeland on the Asian mainland (e.g., Melton et al. 1998), while others mirror the linguistic research, rejecting an East Asian origin in favor of Taiwan (e.g., Trejaut et al. 2005). Archaeological evidence (e.g., Bellwood 1997) is more consistent, suggesting that the ancestors of the Austronesians spread from the South Chinese mainland to Taiwan at some time around 8,000 years ago. Evidence from historical linguistics suggests that it is from this island that seafaring peoples migrated, perhaps in distinct waves separated by millennia, to the entire region encompassed by the Austronesian languages (Diamond 2000). It is believed that this migration began around 6,000 years ago (Blust 1999). However, evidence from historical linguistics cannot bridge the gap between those two periods. The view that linguistic evidence connects Austronesian languages to the Sino-Tibetan ones, as proposed for example by Sagart (2002), is a minority one. As Fox (2004:8) states:

Implied in... discussions of subgrouping [of Austronesian languages] is a broad consensus that the homeland of the Austronesians was in Taiwan. This homeland area may have also included the P'eng-hu (Pescadores) islands between Taiwan and China and possibly even sites on the coast of mainland China, especially if one were to view the early Austronesians as a population of related dialect communities living in scattered coastal settlements.

Linguistic analysis of the Proto-Austronesian language stops at the western shores of Taiwan; any related mainland language(s) have not survived. The only exceptions, the Chamic languages, derive from more recent migration to the mainland (Thurgood 1999:225).

Hypothesized relations

Genealogical links have been proposed between Austronesian and various families of East and Southeast Asia.

Austric

Main article: Austric languages

A link with the Austroasiatic languages in an 'Austric' phylum is based mostly on typological evidence. However, there is also morphological evidence of a connection between the conservative Nicobarese languages and Austronesian languages of the Philippines. Paul K. Benedict extended the Austric proposal to include the Tai–Kadai and Hmong–Mien families, but this has not been followed by other linguists.

Austro-Tai

Main article: Austro-Tai languages

A competing Austro-Tai proposal linking Austronesian and Tai–Kadai is supported by Weera Ostapirat, Roger Blench, and Laurent Sagart, and is based on the traditional comparative method. Ostapirat (2005) proposes a series of regular correspondences linking the two families and assumes a primary split, with Tai–Kadai speakers being the Austronesians who stayed behind in their Chinese homeland. Blench (2004) suggests that, if the connection is valid, the relationship is unlikely to be one of two sister families. Rather, he suggests that proto-Tai–Kadai speakers were Austronesians who migrated to Hainan Island and back to the mainland from the northern Philippines, and that their distinctiveness results from radical restructuring following contact with Hmong–Mien and Sinitic. Sagart's 2005 proposal (Sagart 2005), which may have some support from human population genetics (Li 2005), is that proto-Tai–Kadai was an early Austronesian language that may have back-migrated from northeastern Taiwan to the southeastern coast of China. The apparently cognate words in Tai–Kadai and Austronesian might be explained either as commonly inherited vocabulary, or as loanwords from this hypothetical (but perhaps Malayo-Polynesian) language into proto-Tai–Kadai. (The latter explanation would imply contact rather than a genetic relationship between Tai-Kadai and Austronesian.) Sagart also suggests that Austronesian, in which he includes Tai–Kadai, is ultimately related to the Sino-Tibetan languages and probably has its origin in a Neolithic community of the coastal regions of prehistoric North China or East China.

Sino-Austronesian

Main article: Sino-Austronesian languages

French linguist and Sinologist Laurent Sagart considers the Austronesian languages to be related to the Sino-Tibetan languages, and also groups the Tai–Kadai languages as more closely related to the Malayo-Polynesian languages. He also groups the Austronesian languages in a recursive-like fashion, placing Tai–Kadai as a sister branch of Malayo-Polynesian.

Japanese

Several linguists have proposed that Japanese may be a relative of the Austronesian family, a claim countered by others. Some linguists think it is more plausible that Japanese might have instead been influenced by Austronesian languages, perhaps by an Austronesian substratum. Those who propose this scenario suggest that the Austronesian family once covered the islands to the north of Formosa as well as to the south. More commonly, Japanese is placed in the Altaic language family.

Ongan

It has recently been proposed that the Austronesian and the Ongan protolanguage are the descendants of an Austronesian–Ongan protolanguage (Blevins 2007).

Writing systems

See also: Writing systems of Southeast Asia

Most Austronesian languages have Latin-based writing systems today. Some non-Latin-based writing systems are listed below.

• Jawi alphabet (Arabic-based)
• Sorabe alphabet (Arabic-based)
• Cham alphabet
• Avoiuli
• Eskayan
• Kawi script
  • Balinese alphabet
  • Batak alphabet
  • Baybayin
  • Buhid alphabet
  • Hanunó'o alphabet
  • Javanese alphabet
  • Lontara alphabet
  • Sundanese alphabet (Old Sundanese)
  • Rejang alphabet
  • Rencong alphabet
  • Tagbanwa alphabet
• Woleai script (Caroline Island script)
• Rongorongo (possibly used to write the Rapa Nui language)

See also

• Austric languages
• Austronesia
• Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association
• Austronesian peoples
• Austro-Tai
• Hmong-Mien
• List of Austronesian languages
• List of Austronesian regions
• Margaret Florey
• Tai-Kadai

References

• .
• Wouk, Fay and Malcolm Ross, eds. (2002), The history and typology of western Austronesian voice systems. Pacific Linguistics. Canberra: Australian National University.

Further reading

• Bengtson, John D., The “Greater Austric” Hypothesis, Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory.
• Blust, R. A. (1983). Lexical reconstruction and semantic reconstruction: the case of the Austronesian "house" words. Hawaii: R. Blust.
• Cohen, E. M. K. (1999). Fundaments of Austronesian roots and etymology. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 0-85883-436-7
• Marion, P., Liste Swadesh élargie de onze langues austronésiennes, éd. Carré de sucre, 2009
• Pawley, A., & Ross, M. (1994). Austronesian terminologies: continuity and change. Canberra, Australia: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. ISBN 0-85883-424-3
• Sagart, Laurent, Roger Blench, and Alicia Sanchez-Nazas (Eds.) (2004). The peopling of East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-415-32242-1.
• Tryon, D. T., & Tsuchida, S. (1995). Comparative Austronesian dictionary: an introduction to Austronesian studies. Trends in linguistics, 10. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3110127296
• Wittmann, Henri (1972). "Le caractère génétiquement composite des changements phonétiques du malgache." Proceedings of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 7.807-10. La Haye: Mouton.
• Wolff, John U., "Comparative Austronesian Dictionary. An Introduction to Austronesian Studies", Language, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 145–56, Mar 1997,ISSN-0097-8507

External links

• Blust's Austronesian Comparative Dictionary
• Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database – ABVD (contains over 650 Austronesian Languages)
• Swadesh lists of Austronesian basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• Summer Institute of Linguistics site showing languages (Austronesian and Papuan) of Papua New Guinea.
• Austronesian Language Resources (defunct? moved?) (Archived November 22, 2004 at the Wayback Machine)
• Spreadsheet of 1600+ Austronesian and Papuan number names and systems – ongoing study to determine their relationships and distribution
• Languages of the World: The Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) Language Family
• Introduction to Austronesian Languages and Culture (video) (Malayo-Polynesian) Language Family on YouTube
• 南島語族分布圖