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Jan 22, 2009 · The Austronesian people originated in Taiwan some 5,000 years ago. After a few centuries of settlement, they started a massive pulse of migration, spreading southwards and eastwards. They moved...
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 ).
Few of the languages are large or well-known, but those for which fuller descriptions are available include Manggarai and Ngadha, spoken on the island of Flores; Roti, spoken on the island of the same name; Tetum, spoken on the island of Timor; and Buruese, spoken on the island of Buru in the central Moluccas.
Today, Austronesian-speaking peoples comprise most or all of the indigenous populations of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Madagascar.
109 Citations. 3 Altmetric. Explore all metrics. Abstract. Prior to the European colonial expansions of the past several centuries the Austronesian (AN) language family had the greatest geographical extent of any on earth, including in its territory areas that had never previously been settled.
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.
Austronesian peoples is a term referring to people that live in Southeast Asia, Oceania and Madagascar, who are speakers of the Austronesian languages. They are thought to have originally come from the indigenous peoples of Taiwan .
