Austronesian languages - Reconstruction, Change, Diversity

Austronesian languages

Table of Contents

Introduction
General considerations
- Size and geographic scope
- Major languages
- Written documents
  - Pre-19th century
    - Pre-16th century
    - 16th–18th century
  - 19th–20th century
    - Early classification work
    - The work of Otto Dempwolff
Classification and prehistory
- Major subgroups
  - Formosan
  - Western Malayo-Polynesian (WMP)
  - Central Malayo-Polynesian (CMP)
  - South Halmahera–West New Guinea (SHWNG)
  - Oceanic (OC)
- Lower-level subgroups
  - Philippine languages
  - Polynesian languages
  - Nuclear Micronesian
  - Aberrant languages
- Prehistoric inferences from subgrouping
- External relationships
Structural characteristics of Austronesian languages
- Syntax
  - Word order
  - Verb systems
  - Pronouns
  - Numbers and number classifiers
  - Spacial orientation
- Morphology and canonical shape
  - Verb morphology
  - Reduplication
  - Submorphemes
  - Canonical shape
- Phonetics and phonology
  - Size of phoneme inventory
  - Phonetic types
- Lexical semantics and sociolinguistics
  - Lexical semantics
  - Speech levels and honorific registers
Reconstruction and change
- Grammar
- Morphology
- Phonology
- Vocabulary

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

Figure 1: A subgrouping of the Austronesian languages, with the approximate number of languages in each group shown in parentheses. AN = Austronesian family; F = Formosan, a cover term for perhaps six primary branches of the Austronesian family; MP = Malayo-Polynesian; WMP = Western Malayo-Polynesian; CEMP = Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian; CMP = Central Malayo-Polynesian; EMP = Eastern Malayo-Polynesian; SHWNG = South Halmahera–West–New Guinea; OC = Oceanic.

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Austronesian languages summary

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Proto-Austronesian (PAN) probably had a verb–object–subject (VOS) word order. Four PAN affixes are commonly recognized: *Si- marked instrumental focus (abbreviated IF), *-um- actor focus (AF), *-an locative focus (LF), and *-en patient focus (PF). In addition, the infix *-in- marked completive (c) aspect or past tense. The completive infix could co-occur with *Si-, *-um-, and *-an, but, in the completive form of the patient focus, *-in- was used without the suffix *-en, and *-in- thus simultaneously marked two functions: *k-um-aen i aku (AF) ‘I am eating,’ *k-um-in-aen i aku ‘I was eating,’ *kaen-en ni aku (PF) ‘is eaten by me/what ...(100 of 9728 words)

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