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Malayo-Polynesian Language
The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast Asia (Indonesia and the Philippine Archipelago) and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia in the areas near the Malay Peninsula, with Cambodia, Vietnam and the Chinese island Hainan as the northwest geographic outlier. Malagasy, spoken on the island of Madagascar off the eastern coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, is the furthest western outlier. Many languages of the Malayo-Polynesian family in insular Southeast Asia show the strong influence of Sanskrit, Tamil and Arabic, as the western part of the region has been a stronghold of Hinduism, Buddhism, and, later, Islam. Two morphological characteristics of the Malayo-Polynesian languages are a system of affixation and reduplication (repetition of all or part of ...
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Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia is bordered to the north by East Asia, to the west by South Asia and the Bay of Bengal, to the east by Oceania and the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by Australia (continent), Australia and the Indian Ocean. Apart from the British Indian Ocean Territory and two out of Atolls of the Maldives, 26 atolls of the Maldives in South Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia is the only other subregion of Asia that lies partly within the Southern Hemisphere. Mainland Southeast Asia is entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. Timor-Leste and the southern portion of Indonesia are the parts of Southeast Asia that lie south of the equator. The region lies near the intersection of Plate tectonics, ...
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Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. It has an area of , with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its Urbanization by country, highly urbanized population is concentrated. The combined Free area of the Republic of China, territories under ROC control consist of list of islands of Taiwan, 168 islands in total covering . The Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, largest metropolitan area is formed by Taipei (the capital), New Taipei City, and Keelung. With around 23.9 million inhabitants, Taiwan is among the List of countries and dependencies by population density, most densely populated countries. Tai ...
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Central Pacific Languages
The Central Pacific languages, also known as Fijian–Polynesian languages, are a branch of the Oceanic languages spoken in Fiji and Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in .... Classification Ross et al. (2002) classify the languages as a linkage. Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. 2002. ''The Oceanic languages.'' Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. *Central Pacific **Western *** Rotuman ***Western Fijian linkage **** Namosi-Naitasiri-Serua **** Western Fijian (Nadroga, Waya) **East Central Pacific linkage ***Eastern Fijian linkage **** Bauan (standard Fijian) **** Gone Dau **** Lauan **** Lomaiviti *** Polynesian family The West Fijian languages are more closely related to Rotuman, and East Fijian to Polynesian, than they are to each other, but subse ...
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Micronesian Languages
The Micronesian languages form a family of Oceanic languages. The twenty languages are known for their lack of plain labial consonant and have instead two series, palatalized and labio-velarized labials, similar to the related Kanak languages. Languages According to Jackson (1983, 1986) the languages group as follows: *Micronesian family ** Nauruan **Nuclear Micronesian family *** Kosraean ***Central Micronesian family **** Gilbertese ****Western Micronesian family ***** Marshallese ***** Chuukic-Pohnpeic family ****** Chuukic (Chuukic) ****** Pohnpeic (Ponapeic) The family appears to have originated in the east, likely on Kosrae, and spread westwards. Kosrae appears to have been settled from the south, in the region of Malaita (Solomon Islands) or in northern Vanuatu. Kevin Hughes (2020) revises Jackson's classification, especially with regards to the position of Nauruan, who states that there is no compelling argument from classifying Nauruan apart from other Micro ...
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Southern Oceanic Languages
The Southern Oceanic languages are a linkage (rather than family) of Oceanic languages spoken in Vanuatu and New Caledonia. It was proposed by John Lynch in 1995 and supported by later studies. It appears to be a linkage rather than a language family with a clearly defined internal nested structure. Classification Clark (2009) groups the North Vanuatu and Central Vanuatu languages together into a North-Central Vanuatu (NCV) group and also reconstructs Proto-North-Central Vanuatu, but this is not accepted by Lynch (2018). In addition to the Temotu languages and the Northwest Solomonic languages of the western Solomon Islands, Geraghty (2017) notes that many Southern Oceanic languages are often lexically and typologically aberrant, likely with Papuan substrata - particularly the Espiritu Santo, Malakula, South Vanuatu, and New Caledonian languages, and perhaps also some Central Vanuatu languages of Ambrym and Efate. Nevertheless, languages in the eastern Solomon Isl ...
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Southeast Solomonic Languages
The family of Southeast Solomonic languages forms a branch of the Oceanic languages. It consists of some 26 languages covering the Eastern Solomon Islands, from the tip of Santa Isabel to Makira. It is defined by the merger of Proto-Oceanic ''*l'' and ''*R''. The fact that there is little diversity amongst these languages, compared to groups of similar size in Melanesia, suggests that they dispersed in the relatively recent past. Bugotu, Gela and Lengo are three of the most conservative languages out of all of them. Languages According to Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002), the structure of the family is as follows: *Southeast Solomonic family **Bugotu–Gela–Guadalcanal family *** Bughotu (Bugotu) ***Gela–Guadalcanal family ****Gelic: Lengo, Gela ****Guadalcanalese: Birao, Ghari, Malango, Talise **Longgu–Malaita–Makira family *** Longgu ***Malaita–Makira family **** Sa'a ****Makiran (San Cristobal): Arosi, Fagani, Bauro, Kahua– Owa, ? Marau Wawa ****Malaitan ...
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Temotu Languages
The Temotu languages, named after Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands, are a branch of Oceanic languages proposed in Ross & Næss (2007) to unify the Reefs – Santa Cruz languages with Utupua and Vanikoro, each a group of three related languages. Utupua and Vanikoro were formerly classified together as the Utupua–Vanikoro languages or Eastern Outer Islands languages (see ). History of classification The Reefs-Santa Cruz languages had previously been considered Papuan, but Ross & Næss (2007) established that their closest relatives were the Utupua–Vanikoro languages, previously thought to be Central–Eastern Oceanic. However, Roger Blench (2014) argues that the aberrancy of Utupua and Vanikoro, which he considers to be separate branches that do not group with each other, is due to the fact that they are actually non-Austronesian languages. Blench (2014) doubts that Utupua and Vanikoro are closely related, and argues that thus they should not be grouped together. Sin ...
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Western Oceanic Languages
The Western Oceanic languages is a linkage of Oceanic languages, proposed and studied by . They make up a majority of the Austronesian languages spoken in New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is .... Classification The West Oceanic linkage is made up of three sub-linkages:. * North New Guinea linkage * Meso-Melanesian linkage * Papuan Tip linkage The center of dispersal was evidently near the Willaumez Peninsula on the north coast of New Britain. Notes References * * {{Austronesian languages Oceanic languages ...
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St Matthias Languages
The St Matthias languages are a pair of Oceanic languages The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ... spoken on the St. Matthias Islands. * St Matthias ** Mussau-Emira ** Tenis They are a "residual" group of Oceanic languages. References Languages of Papua New Guinea Oceanic languages {{oceanic-lang-stub ...
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Yapese Language
Yapese is an Austronesian language in the Oceanic branch spoken on the island of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia. It has been difficult to classify the language further, but Yapese may prove to be one of the Admiralty Islands languages. The Yapese language refers to the language spoken specifically on the Yap Main Islands, and does not include the Chuukic languages spoken in the Yap Neighboring Islands: Ulithian, Woleaian, and Satawalese (and to an extent, Nguluwan). Orthography Written Yapese uses the Latin script. In Yapese spelling as practiced until the 1970s, the glottal stop was not written with an explicit character. A word-final glottal stop was represented by doubling the final vowel letter. Glottalization of consonants was represented with an apostrophe. In the 1970s an orthography was created which uses double vowel letters to represent long vowels; and because of the ambiguity that would occur if the glottal stop was not written, the glottal st ...
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Admiralty Islands Languages
The Admiralty Islands languages are a group of some thirty Oceanic languages The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ... spoken on the Admiralty Islands. They may include Yapese, which has proven difficult to classify. Languages According to Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002), the structure of the family is: *Admiralty Islands languages **Eastern *** Manus ***Southeast **** Baluan-Pam **** Lenkau **** Lou **** Nauna, Penchal **Western *** Northern Kaniet and Southern Kaniet () *** Seimat *** Wuvulu-Aua (as two languages) As noted, Yapese and Nguluwan may be part of the Admiralty Islands languages as well. References * Blust, Robert (2007). The prenasalised trills of Manus. In ''Language description, history, and development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Cr ...
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Oceanic Languages
The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages are spoken by only two million people. The largest individual Oceanic languages are Eastern Fijian with over 600,000 speakers, and Samoan with an estimated 400,000 speakers. The Gilbertese (Kiribati), Tongan, Tahitian, Māori and Tolai (Gazelle Peninsula) languages each have over 100,000 speakers. The common ancestor which is reconstructed for this group of languages is called Proto-Oceanic (abbr. "POc"). Classification The Oceanic languages were first shown to be a language family by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1896 and, besides Malayo-Polynesian, they are the only established large branch of Austronesian languages. Grammatically, they have been strongly influenced by the Papuan languages of northern New Guinea, but they retain a rema ...
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