Austronesian languages Totally Explained

Everything about Austronesian Language totally explained

Austronesian

Saisiyat
Atayalic: Atayal and Sediq (Taroko Gorge)
Kulunic: Popora-Hoanya, Pazeh
Thaoic: Thao, Babuza
Bunun
Amic: Amis, Kavalan, Basay, Siraya
Tsouic: Tsou, Kanakanabu, Saaroa
Rukai
Puyuma
Paiwan
Malayo-Polynesian (see below)-->

The seminal article regarding the subgroupings of Formosan (and by extension, the top-level structure of Austronesian) is . His proposed grouping was certainly not the first. In fact, he lists no less than seventeen others, discussing some of their features. Prominent Formosanists (linguists who specialize in Formosan languages) take issue with some of its details. However, it remains the point of reference for current linguistic analyses. Note that the first nine primary branches of Austronesian are composed entirely of Formosan languages:
Austronesian

Atayalic (Atayal, Seediq) [notealternate names for Seediq:Truku, Taroko, Sediq]

East Formosan

Northern (Basai-Trobiawan, Kavalan)
Central (Amis)
Southwest (Siraya)

Puyuma

Paiwan

Rukai

Tsouic (Tsou, Saaroa, Kanakanabu)

Bunun

Western Plains

Central Western Plains (Taokas-Babuza, Papora-Hoanya)
Thao

Northwest Formosan (Saisiyat, Kulon-Pazeh)

Malayo-Polynesian (see below) However, there are no mainland China remnants of the Austronesian-speakers cited in this paper, and there are no identified immediate ancestor-languages, on the island, of Malayo-Polynesian, the single language sub-group proposed as the ancestor for all the other 1200+ recognised Austronesian languages, that spread to Madagascar and Easter Island, Hawaii and New Zealand.
Few attempts have been made to identify the origins of the Formosan tribes, allowing a prevailing assumption that they came from the Chinese mainland. The generally-accepted paradigm has to assume that the proto-Austronesians left the Chinese mainland, leaving no traces, and that the immediately ancestral proto-Malayo-Polynesian speakers later left Taiwan, also leaving no traces.
The Basay, Kavalan and Amis of Eastern Formosa share a homeland motif that has them coming originally from an island called “Sinasay” or “Sanasay” Paul Jen-kuei Li 2004

. The Amis, in particular (now the largest extant Formosan language group), consider they came from the East, and were treated by the Puyuma, amongst whom they settled, then in a minority, as a subservient group George Taylor 1888

.
Whether Taiwan/Formosa was a hostland or a homeland is still very much open to debate Mutsu Hsui, Shu-Juo Chen 2004

Formosan classification II

Austronesian

Atayalic

Tsou-Malayo-Polynesian

Rukai-Tsouic
Paiwan-Malayo-Polynesian
- Paiwanic linkage: Amic, Bunun, Kulunic, Paiwan, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Thaoic
- Malayo-Polynesian (see below)

Malayo-Polynesian classification

Quotations to .
Malayo-Polynesian

Borneo-Philippines, or Outer Western Malayo-Polynesian (Outer Hesperonesian): many small groups of languages, with the most important languages being Tagalog, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilokano, Kapampangan, Malagasy, Tausug

Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian (possibly dispersed from Sulawesi)

Sunda-Sulawesi, or Inner Western Malayo-Polynesian (Inner Hesperonesian): Western Indonesia: Buginese (of Sulawesi), Acehnese, Cham (of Vietnam), Malay (Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam), Indonesian (Indonesia), Iban (of Borneo), Sundanese, Javanese, Balinese; also Chamorro (of Guam), Palauan
Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
- Central Malayo-Polynesian linkage, or Bandanesian: around the Banda Sea: languages of Timor, Sumba, Flores, and the Malukus
- Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, or "Melanesian", if this term is redefined to subsume Micronesian and Polynesian
  - South Halmahera-Geelvink Bay: languages of Halmahera and western New Guinea, the most important being Taba and Biak
  - Oceanic: A well-supported family that includes all the Austronesian languages of Melanesia from Jayapura east, Polynesia, and most of Micronesia

Lexicon

The Austronesian language family is 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 Maori). 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 (for example Bunun rusya, lusha; Amis tusa; Maori tua, rua) require some linguistic expertise to recognise. The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database

gives word lists (coded for cognacy) for approximately 500 Austronesian languages.

Major languages

Further Information

Get more info on 'Austronesian Language'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://austronesian_languages.totallyexplained.com">Austronesian languages Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.