Search results
Austronesian languages, family of languages spoken in most of the Indonesian archipelago; all of the Philippines, Madagascar, and the island groups of the Central and South Pacific (except for Australia and much of New Guinea); much of Malaysia; and scattered areas of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Taiwan.
The Austronesian languages ( / ˌɔːstrəˈniːʒən /) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples ). [1] They are spoken by about 386 million people (4.9% of the world population ).
- One of the world's primary language families
People also ask
Where are Austronesian languages spoken?
Why are Austronesian languages subgrouped?
How are Austronesian languages different from other languages?
How many words are spoken in Austronesian languages?
Austronesian languages - Classification, Prehistory, Diversity: Given the size of the Austronesian family, the subgrouping of the languages is a matter of some importance, bearing on, among other things, the determination of the Austronesian homeland. Until the 1930s the branches of Austronesian were customarily identified with purely geographic labels: Indonesian, Melanesian, Micronesian, and ...
Austronesian peoples. The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, [44] are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austronesian languages.
- c. 270 million (2020)
- c. 855,000 (2006)
- c. 24 million (2016)
- c. 109.3 million (2020)
Prior to AD 1500 the Austronesian languages belonged to the most widespread language family in the world, with a distribution extending more than half way around the globe from Madagascar to Easter Island. Today, Austronesian-speaking peoples comprise most or all of the indigenous populations of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Madagascar.
Peter Bellwood , James J. Fox and Darrell Tryon. The Austronesian languages form a single and relatively close-knit family, similar in its degree of internal diversity and time depth to other major language families such as Austroasiatic, Uto-Aztecan and Indo-European. Prior to AD 1500 the Austronesian languages belonged to the most widespread ...
Austronesian languages, formerly Malayo-Polynesian languages , Family of about 1,200 languages spoken by more than 200 million people in Indonesia, the Philippines, Madagascar, the central and southern Pacific island groups (except most of New Guinea; see Papuan languages), and parts of mainland Southeast Asia and the island of Taiwan.
