You searched for: “austronesian
Austronesian (s) (noun) (no pl)
The major family of languages of the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific (including Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, parts of southern Vietnam, Madagascar, Melanesia (excluding much of New Guinea), Micronesia, and Polynesia.

The family is divided into (1) Western Austronesian, or Indonesian, containing about 200 languages, and (2) Eastern Austronesian, or Oceanic, with about 300 languages.

Proto-Austronesian probably started in southern China or Taiwan before 3000 BC. Austronesian speakers were the first humans to settle the Pacific islands beyond western Melanesia.

Austronesian was the most widely spread ethno-linguistic group on Earth, with the distance from Madagascar to Easter Island being 210 degrees of longitude.

This entry is located in the following units: austro-, austr-, austral-, auster- + (page 2) neso-, nes-, -nesia (page 1)