Austronesian language
| Austronesian | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: |
Maritime Southeast Asia, Oceania, Madagascar, Taiwan, Andaman archipelago, East Asia/Japan |
| Linguistic classification: | One of the world's primary language families |
| Proto-language: | Proto-Austronesian |
| Subdivisions: |
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| ISO 639-2 / 5: | |
| Glottolog: | aust1307 |
Distribution of Austronesian languages
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The Austronesian languages are a language family that is widely dispersed throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, with a few members in 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). The family contains 1,257 languages, which is the second most of any language family.
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 (incl. Indonesian and Malaysian), 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).
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