Talk:Austronesian languages

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Austronesian languages article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1

Languages Top‑importance

	Language portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Languages, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of languages on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LanguagesWikipedia:WikiProject LanguagesTemplate:WikiProject Languageslanguage articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Oceania Top‑importance

	Oceania portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Oceania, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Oceania on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.OceaniaWikipedia:WikiProject OceaniaTemplate:WikiProject OceaniaOceania articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Southeast Asia Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Southeast Asia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Southeast Asia-related subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Southeast AsiaWikipedia:WikiProject Southeast AsiaTemplate:WikiProject Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Tambayan Philippines Mid‑importance

	Philippines portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Tambayan Philippines, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics related to the Philippines on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Tambayan PhilippinesWikipedia:WikiProject Tambayan PhilippinesTemplate:WikiProject Tambayan PhilippinesPhilippine-related articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale.

Indonesia Mid‑importance

	Indonesia portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Indonesia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Indonesia and Indonesia-related topics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.IndonesiaWikipedia:WikiProject IndonesiaTemplate:WikiProject IndonesiaIndonesia articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Africa: Madagascar Low‑importance

	Africa portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Africa, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Africa on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AfricaWikipedia:WikiProject AfricaTemplate:WikiProject AfricaAfrica articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	Madagascar portal This article is supported by WikiProject Madagascar (assessed as Mid-importance).

Malay and Indonesian[edit]

Indonesian is spoken by 90% of Malay speakers, so it never hurts to explain it in brackets Bahasa Kitasemua (talk) 16:41, 29 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Continental Asia[edit]

The lead currently states that austronesian languages are spoken in (among other places) "parts of Mainland Southeast Asia", and then the next sentence says: "There are also a number of speakers in continental Asia."

Isn't that sentence simply redundant? Nø (talk) 18:32, 23 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I have now removed the redundant sentencej. Nø (talk) 20:02, 16 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Nø: The long-standing version[1] read:

...widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). There are also a number of speakers in continental Asia.

It was maximally cluttered with this edit:[2]. I partially de-cluttered it here[3], but missed the remaining redundancy that you have spotted.

Your version looks good, but just in case if someone prefers the long-standing version, I'm fine with either version. –Austronesier (talk) 10:46, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Most widespread languange family[edit]

We say:

The geographical span of Austronesian was the largest of any language family before the spread of Indo-European in the colonial period. It ranged from Madagascar off the southeastern coast of Africa to Easter Island in the eastern Pacific.

I think this statement should include a start as well as a finish. Madagascar was settled between 350 BCE and 250 CE, and Easter Island between 300 CE and 1200 CE (probably closer to the latter). Other eastern Pacific islands were likewise settled around 1000 CE. So from what date is it true that Austronesian was the most widespread? I'm not sure, but he following seems valid - and better than what we have?

After the settlement of Madagascar off the southeastern coast of Africa around 2000 years ago, and of Easter Island and other islands of the eastern Pacific around 1000 years ago, but before the span of the Indo-European languages became global during the colonial period, Austronesian had the largest geographical span of of any language family.

Nø (talk) 11:51, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

For simplicity, we might also say "right before the spread of Indo-European in the colonial period", or "in the first half of the second millenium CE before the spread of Indo-European in the colonial period". The article Austronesian peoples says "Prior to the 16th century Colonial Era".

If we want to mention the date of settlement of the extreme points, I'd prefer "around 1500 years ago" for Madagascar as more realistic. For Easter Island, we could say "1200 CE (or maybe earlier)". –Austronesier (talk) 12:04, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for suggestions. I've added the ""in the first half of the second millenium" version; I think it's a good compromise bewteen brevity and precision. Nø (talk) 16:09, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]