Language Families
Austronesian
aw-struh-NEE-zhuhn
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Austronesian is the language family of maritime Southeast Asia, the Pacific islands and Madagascar, spanning from Malagasy in the west to Hawaiian and Rapa Nui in the east, one of the widest geographic ranges of any language family before the colonial era. The great majority of Austronesian's internal diversity survives on Taiwan alone, which is the strongest evidence behind the mainstream Out of Taiwan hypothesis for the family's homeland and the outward Austronesian expansion beginning roughly five thousand years ago; a competing homeland further south has been argued but has not displaced the Taiwan hypothesis as the consensus view.
Facts
RegionMaritime Southeast Asia, Taiwan, the Pacific Islands and Madagascar 1 Speaker CountAggregate across the Austronesian languages; mid-2020s estimate. Proto-Language StatusProto-Austronesian is reconstructed with the Formosan languages of Taiwan retained as the earliest branching lineages, the linguistic cornerstone of the Out of Taiwan model for the Austronesian expansion across the Pacific and Indian Oceans. 3 Cross-Tradition Connections
Held Differently
Austroasiatic, Language Families Why this is disputed. The Austric hypothesis proposes a common ancestor for Austroasiatic and Austronesian, and possibly Kra-Dai and Hmong-Mien; most specialists do not accept it as proven.
Kra-Dai, Language Families Why this is disputed. Weera Ostapirat proposes Kra-Dai and Austronesian as sister families descended from a common ancestor, on the strength of regular sound correspondences.
Associated With
This source names Rapa Nui directly: "Malagasy in the west to Hawaiian and Rapa Nui in the east, one of the widest geographic ranges of any language family before the colonial era."
Includes
Sources
1. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
David Crystal (editor), Cambridge University Press, 2010
2. Ethnologue: Languages of the World
3. Glottolog
Wikipedia: Austronesian Languages
Wikipedia: Kra-Dai Languages
Wikipedia: Austroasiatic Languages
Wikipedia: Indonesian Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Indonesian, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Indonesian, Infobox, Language family
Austronesian > Malayo-Polynesian > Malayo-Sumbawan (?) > Malayic > Riau Malay > Indonesian
Wikipedia: Tagalog Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Tagalog, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Tagalog, Infobox, Language family
Austronesian > Malayo-Polynesian > Philippine > Greater Central Philippine > Central Philippine > Kasiguranin-Tagalog > Tagalog
Wikipedia: Javanese Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Javanese, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Javanese, Infobox, Language family
Austronesian - Malayo-Polynesian - Javanese
Wikipedia: Rapa Nui Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Rapa Nui, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Rapa Nui, Infobox, Language family
Austronesian > Malayo-Polynesian > Oceanic > Polynesian > Eastern Polynesian > Rapa Nui
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Associated With: Kra-Dai
Sagart argues Kra-Dai descended from a Formosan ancestral branch of Austronesian (FATK, Formosan Ancestor of Tai-Kadai), making Kra-Dai a subgroup nested within Austronesian rather than a sister family descended from an independent common ancestor, contrary to Ostapirat's sister-family account recorded on this edge.
A dissenting reading, from Laurent SagartWikipedia: Kra-Dai Languages, Wikimedia Foundation
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