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Malayo-Polynesian languages
The '''Malayo-Polynesian languages''' are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers. These are widely dispersed throughout the island nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia. Malagasy is a geographic outlier, spoken in the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
A characteristic of the Malayo-Polynesian languages is a tendency to use reduplication (repetition of all or part of a word --e.g., wiki-wiki) to express the plural, and like other Austronesian languages they have simple phonology|phonologies; thus a text has few but frequent sounds. The majority also lack consonant clusters (e.g., str or mpt in English). Most also have only a small set of spoken vowels, five being a common number.
Classification
The Malayo-Polynesian languages share several phonological and lexical innovations with the Eastern Formosan languages, including the leveling of Proto-Austronesian language|proto-Austronesian *t, *C to /t/ and *n, *N to /n/, a shift of *S to /h/, and vocabulary such as *lima "five" which are not attested in other Formosan languages.
Malayo-Polynesian is divided into Western Malayo-Polynesian languages|Western ("Hesperonesian") and Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages|Central-Eastern branches. The Western branch is a geographic grouping defined as a linguistic unit; it is describe as those Malayo-Polynesian languages which are established in Central-Eastern branch. In recent classifications with some of its languages split off in an "Outer" group as a primary branch of Malayo-Polynesian, and the rest retained in an "Inner" group within a Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages|Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian branch. These Inner and Outer groups may also be called the Borneo-Philippines languages and Sunda-Sulawesi languages, after their geographic spread.
Borneo-Philippines languages|Borneo-Philippines, Outer Western Malayo-Polynesian, or Outer Hesperonesian languages
- :These languages are spoken by about 130 million speakers and include Tagalog language|Tagalog, Cebuano language|Cebuano, Ilokano language|Ilokano, Hiligaynon language|Hiligaynon, Bikol language|Bikolano, Kapampangan language|Kapampangan, Waray-Waray language|Waray-Waray, and Malagasy language|Malagasy.
Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages
;Sunda-Sulawesi languages|Sunda-Sulawesi, Inner Western Malayo-Polynesian, or Inner Hesperonesian languages
- ::These languages are spoken by about 230 million speakers and include Indonesian language|Indonesian Malay, Malay language|Malaysian Malay, Sundanese language|Sundanese, Javanese language|Javanese, Acehnese language|Acehnese, Chamorro language|Chamorro, and Palauan language|Palau (Belau).
;Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages
- ::These include Gilbertese, Nauruan, Romang language|Romang, Hawaiian language|Hawaiian, Māori language|Māori, Samoan language|Samoan, Tahitian language|Tahitian, Tongan language|Tongan, and Tuvaluan language|Tuvaluan.
External links
- Ethnologue report for Malayo-Polynesian
- Languages of the World : The Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) Language Family
- History.com Encyclopedia: Malayo-Polynesian Languages
Category:Malayo-Polynesian languages|
Category:Austronesian languages|
Category:Formosan languages|
Category:Southeast Asia
Category:Oceania
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