Editing Austronesian languages (section)

{{Short description|Large language family mostly of Southeast Asia and the Pacific}}
{{Distinguish|Austroasiatic languages}}
{{Infobox language family
| name          = Austronesian
| region        = [[Taiwan]], [[Maritime Southeast Asia]], [[Madagascar]], parts of [[Mainland Southeast Asia]], [[Hainan]] ([[China]]), and [[Oceania]]
| familycolor   = Austronesian
| protoname     = [[Proto-Austronesian language|Proto-Austronesian]]
| family        = One of the world's primary [[language family|language families]]
| child1        = {{Nowrap|[[Atayalic languages|Atayalic]]}}
| child2        = {{Nowrap|''[[Bunun language|Bunun]]''}}
| child3        = {{Nowrap|[[East Formosan languages|East Formosan]]}}
| child4        = {{Nowrap|[[Malayo-Polynesian languages|Malayo-Polynesian]]}}
| child5        = {{Nowrap|[[Northwest Formosan languages|Western Plains]]}}
| child6        = {{Nowrap|[[Northwest Formosan languages|Northwest Formosan]]}}
| child7        = {{Nowrap|''[[Paiwan language|Paiwan]]''}}
| child8        = {{Nowrap|''[[Puyuma language|Puyuma]]''}}
| child9        = {{Nowrap|''[[Rukai language|Rukai]]''}}
| child10       = {{Nowrap|[[Tsouic languages|Tsouic]]}}
| iso2          = map
| iso5          = map
| glotto        = aust1307
| glottorefname = Austronesian
| map           = File:Austroneske jazyky.jpg
| mapcaption    = {{center|Historical distribution of Austronesian languages}}
{{legend|#f90706|&nbsp;[[Malayo-Polynesian languages|Malayo-Polynesian branch]]}}
{{legend-line|#f90706 solid 2px|included islands and archipelagos}}
{{legend|#b418dd|&nbsp;[[Formosan languages|Formosan branch]]}}
{{legend-line|#b418dd solid 2px|included region}}
| ancestor      = 
| glottoname    = 
| notes         = 
| ethnicity     = [[Austronesian peoples]]
| speakers      = 328 million
| ref           = <ref name=Eth />
| date          = no date
}}

The '''Austronesian languages''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|ɔː|s|t|r|ə|ˈ|n|iː|ʒ|ən}} {{respell|AW|strə|NEE|zhən}}) 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]]).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Austronesian Languages |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Austronesian-languages |access-date=26 October 2016 |last=Blust |first=Robert Andrew}}</ref> They are spoken by about 328 million people (4.4% of the [[world population]]).<ref name=Eth>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/| title=Statistical Summaries; Ethnologue}}</ref><ref name=eth>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/subgroup/447/| title=Austronesian; Ethnologue}}</ref> This makes it the fifth-largest language family by number of speakers. Major Austronesian languages include [[Malay language|Malay]] (around 250–270 million in Indonesia alone in its own literary standard named "[[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]"),<ref>{{cite book|author-link=James Neil Sneddon|first=James Neil|last=Sneddon|title=The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Society|publisher=UNSW Press|year=2004|page =14}})</ref> [[Javanese language|Javanese]], [[Sundanese language|Sundanese]], [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]] (standardized as [[Filipino language|Filipino]]),<ref>{{cite book|page=76|title=Language and Nationalism: The Philippine Experience Thus Far|ISBN=9711130009|publisher=Ateneo de Manila University Press|location=Manila|first=Andrew B.|last=Gonzalez|year=1980}}</ref> [[Malagasy language|Malagasy]] and [[Cebuano language|Cebuano]]. According to some estimates, the family contains 1,257 languages, which is the second most of any language family.<ref>{{Cite book|title=History of the Austronesian Languages|author=Robert Blust|publisher=University of Hawaii at Manoa|year=2016|author-link=Robert Blust}}</ref>

In 1706, the Dutch scholar [[Adriaan Reland]] first observed similarities between the languages spoken in the [[Malay Archipelago]] and by peoples on islands in the Pacific Ocean.{{sfnp|Pereltsvaig|2018|p=143}} In the 19th century, researchers (e.g. [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]], [[Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk|Herman van der Tuuk]]) started to apply the [[comparative method]] to the Austronesian languages. The first extensive study on the history of the [[phonology]] was made by the German linguist [[Otto Dempwolff]].<ref name="Dempwolff">{{cite book|last=Dempwolff|first=Otto |title=Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes|trans-title=Comparative phonology of the Austronesian vocabularies|series=Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen (Supplements to the Journal of Native Languages) 15; 17; 19|location=Berlin|publisher=Dietrich Reimer|language=de|type=3 vols}}</ref> It included a reconstruction of the [[Proto-Austronesian language|Proto-Austronesian]] lexicon. The term ''Austronesian'' was coined (as German ''{{Lang|de|austronesisch}}'') by [[Wilhelm Schmidt (linguist)|Wilhelm Schmidt]], deriving it from [[Latin]] ''{{Wikt-lang|la|auster}}'' "south" and [[Ancient Greek]] ''{{Wikt-lang|grc|νῆσος}}'' ({{lang|grc|nêsos}} "island"), meaning the "Southern Island languages".<ref>{{cite book|title=Official Oxford English Dictionary (OED2)|editor1=[[John Simpson (lexicographer)|John Simpson]]|editor2=[[Edmund Weiner]]|type=Dictionary|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1989}}</ref>

Most Austronesian languages are spoken by the people of [[Insular Southeast Asia]] and [[Oceania]]. Only a few languages, such as [[Urak Lawoiʼ language|Urak Lawoiʼ]] and the [[Chamic languages]] (except [[Acehnese language|Acehnese]]), are [[indigenous language|indigenous]] to mainland Asia, or [[Malagasy language|Malagasy]] which is the only Austronesian language indigenous to Insular East Africa. There are few Austronesian languages which have populations exceeding a few thousand, but a handful have speaking populations in the millions. For example, Indonesian is spoken by around 252 million people.<ref>{{Ethnologue28|ind}}</ref> This makes it the tenth [[lists of languages by number of speakers|most-spoken language in the world]]. Approximately twenty Austronesian languages are [[official language|official]] in their respective countries (see the [[list of major and official Austronesian languages]]).

By the number of languages they include, Austronesian and [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger–Congo]] are the two largest language families in the world. They each contain roughly one-fifth of the world's languages. The geographical span of Austronesian was the largest of any language family in the first half of the second millennium CE, before the spread of [[Indo-European languages]] in the [[European colonization|colonial period]]. It ranged from Madagascar to [[Easter Island]] in the eastern Pacific.

According to [[Robert Blust]] (1999), Austronesian is divided into several primary branches, all but one of which are found exclusively in Taiwan. The [[Formosan languages]] of Taiwan are grouped into as many as nine first-order subgroups of Austronesian. All Austronesian languages spoken outside the Taiwan mainland (including its offshore [[Yami language]]) belong to the [[Malayo-Polynesian languages|Malayo-Polynesian]] (sometimes called ''Extra-Formosan'') branch.

Most Austronesian languages lack a long history of written attestation. The oldest inscription in the [[Cham language]], the [[Đông Yên Châu inscription]] dated to {{circa|350}} AD, is the first attestation of any Austronesian language.