Editing Austronesian languages (section)

===Phonology===
The Austronesian languages overall possess [[phoneme]] inventories which are smaller than the world average. Around 90% of the Austronesian languages have inventories of 19–25 sounds (15–20 consonants and 4–5 vowels), thus lying at the lower end of the global typical range of 20–37 sounds. However, extreme inventories are also found, such as [[Nemi language|Nemi]] ([[New Caledonia]]) with 43 consonants.{{sfnp|Blust|2013|p=169}}

The canonical root type in [[Proto-Austronesian language|Proto-Austronesian]] is disyllabic with the shape CV(C)CVC (C = consonant; V = vowel), and is still found in many Austronesian languages.{{sfnp|Blust|2013|p=212}} In most languages, consonant clusters are only allowed in medial position, and often, there are restrictions for the first element of the cluster.{{sfnp|Blust|2013|pp=215–218}} There is a common [[Drift (linguistics)|drift]] to reduce the number of consonants which can appear in final position, e.g. [[Buginese language|Buginese]], which only allows the two consonants /ŋ/ and /ʔ/ as finals, out of a total number of 18 consonants. Complete absence of final consonants is observed e.g. in [[Nias language|Nias]], [[Malagasy language|Malagasy]] and many [[Oceanic languages]].{{sfnp|Blust|2013|pp=220–222}}

[[Tone (linguistics)|Tonal contrasts]] are rare in Austronesian languages,{{sfnp|Crowley|2009|p=100}} although [[Moklenic languages|Moken–Moklen]] and a few languages of the [[Chamic languages|Chamic]], [[South Halmahera–West New Guinea languages|South Halmahera–West New Guinea]] and [[New Caledonian languages|New Caledonian]] subgroups do show lexical tone.{{sfnp|Blust|2013|pp=188–189, 200, 206}}