Austronesian

American  

[aw-stroh-nee-zhuhn, -shuhn] / ˌɔ stroʊˈni ʒən, -ʃən /

noun

1. Also called Malayo-Polynesian.  a family of languages spoken in the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Madagascar, and Oceania.

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adjective

1. of or relating to Austronesia or the Austronesian family of languages; Malayo-Polynesian.

Austronesian British  

/ ˌɒstrəʊˈniːʒən, -ʃən /

adjective

1. of or relating to Austronesia, its peoples, or their languages

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noun

1. another name for Malayo-Polynesian

Etymology

Origin of Austronesian

First recorded in 1900–05; Austronesi(a) + -an

Example Sentences

Taiwan's first known settlers were Austronesian tribal people, believed to have come from modern day southern China.

From BBC • Oct. 14, 2024

Only about 2.5% of the island’s population is of Austronesian descent, with ancestors preceding Japanese, Chinese and Dutch settlers in the early 1600s.

From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2023

Though Madagascar is located about 425 kilometers off the east coast of Africa, the Malagasy language is similar to Austronesian languages spoken 7000 kilometers across the Indian Ocean.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 4, 2022

Such linguistic neutrality persists in a number of modern tongues whose third-person pronouns lack a masculine or feminine inflection, among them Armenian, Bengali, Farsi, Finnish, Hungarian, Yoruba and most Turkic and Austronesian languages.

From New York Times • Feb. 17, 2022

With time, the Austronesian expansion would surely have had more impact on New Guinea.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond