Austronesian languages

The Austronesian languages are a very widespread family of languages with a total of about 1150 languages that are spoken by about 300 million people. After the number of the Austronesian languages is only surpassed by the African country of Niger - Congo, according to the number of its speakers, it is the fifth largest language family on earth. Unsurpassed the Austronesian is in its areal extent of Madagascar to Easter Island, from Taiwan to New Zealand. According to Paul K. Benedict, it forms together with the language family Tai - Kadai Austro -Tai family the macro. In addition, there is the proposal of its summary to the Austro- Asiatic family for macro Austrisch (on the same level as the proposal of Eurasia table according to Joseph Greenberg). However, these theories have few followers in the professional world. Also speculative is the hypothesis that Japanese Ryukyu had emerged as Korean creole language based on Austronesian and Austronesian languages have thus influenced the development of the Japanese.

Ancient homeland and expansion of the Austronesians

According to recent research results (eg, Adelaar 2005) results for the structure of the Austronesian a peculiar situation: There are eight to ten primary branches of the Austronesian, all of which are spoken in Taiwan and only 21 languages along with 330,000 speakers include (see below: Classification ). All other Austronesian languages belong to a single primary branch, the Malayo - Polynesian with over 1,100 languages and around 300 million speakers. This suggests that the formation region, or at least the center of the incipient spread of Austronesian the island of Taiwan and adjacent areas of mainland China - Fujian, Guangdong - were. A 6000 years old Neolithic culture in Taiwan and the adjacent mainland with a specific ceramic is associated with the early Austronesians. From there, the Austronesian languages and their support have spread together with their agrarian culture in a millennia -lasting process, whose main stations can be traced in time about:

Taiwan 4000 BC
North Philippines 3000 BC
Southern Philippines, Sulawesi, Borneo, Timor 2500-2000 BC
Melanesia, coastal New Guinea 1200 BC
Java, Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, 1000 BC
Mariana Islands, Micronesia 1000 BC
Hawaii, East Polynesia, Easter Island 300-400 AD
Madagascar 700 AD (of Borneo )
New Zealand 1200 AD

On the Chinese mainland today to find Austronesian languages more no traces. This is explained by the cultural and linguistic pressure exerted by the Chinese there for over 2,500 years. Also on Taiwan - where this pressure only began later - set the Austronesians only a tiny minority of 330,000 compared to a Chinese- speaking population of 23 million speakers dar.

Proto - Austronesian

A first attempt to reconstruct the sound system and the vocabulary of the Austronesian primitive language, was made in the 1930s by Otto Dempwolff ( " Uraustronesisch "). In the 1970s, Otto Christian Dahl undertook another attempt to reconstruct the Proto - Austronesian (see literature).

The main branches of the Austronesian

The Austronesian languages are classified in current research in ten main branches. Of these, nine branches represented only in Taiwan ( " Formosan languages ", 330,000 speakers), the tenth - according to his spokesman number by far the most important - is the spread of Madagascar to Easter Island Malayo - Polynesian:

Atayal Seediq language (2 languages , 90,000 speakers; Northeast Taiwan)
Bunun (1 language, 35,000 speakers; east - central level)
North -west Formosa ( 3 languages, an extinct, 3,000 speakers; Northwest Taiwan)
East Formosan languages (4 languages , 2 of them died, 130,000 speakers; eastern Taiwan )
Paiwan (2 languages, one died, 50,000 people; southern and southeastern highlands of Taiwan)
Puyuma (1 language, 7,000 speakers; east coast of Taiwan)
Rukai (1 language, 8,000 speakers; south- central mountains of Taiwan)
Tsou (2 languages , 6,000 speakers; west- central mountains of Taiwan)
Western Plains ( 5 languages, almost extinct; western plain of Taiwan )
Malayo - Polynesian languages (1123 languages , 295 million speakers) Western Malayo - Polynesian languages ( 445 languages , 284 million speakers )
Central Eastern Malayo - Polynesian languages ( 678 languages , 7.3 million speakers ) Eastern Malayo - Polynesian languages ( 527 languages , 2.8 million speakers)
Central Malayo Polynesian languages ( 151 languages , 4.5 million speakers) Oceanic languages ( 488 languages , 2.7 million speakers)
Südhalmahera - West New Guinea group SHWNG ( 39 languages , 135,000 speakers)

To further classification of Malayo - Polynesian (1123 languages with 295 million speakers ), see the article " Malayo - Polynesian languages ".