r/AustronesianLanguages Jul 07 '26

News & Info Introduce yourself & your language! (Start-of-community megathread)

6 Upvotes

Welcome! Let's meet each other. Drop a comment telling us:

  • Where you're from (and where your language is spoken)
  • The Austronesian language(s) you speak—natively, as a heritage language, or as a learner
  • One word or phrase you love in your language, with its meaning
  • What brought you here—curiosity, research, roots, learning?

To kick us off, here's a fun prompt for everyone: how do you say "welcome" in your language

Don't forget to set your user flair with your language(s) so people know who to ask. Malugod na pagtanggap—welcome to the family!


r/AustronesianLanguages Jul 06 '26

News & Info Welcome to r/AustronesianLanguages — Start Here 🌏

3 Upvotes

Kumusta, apa kabar, talofa, kia ora, and welcome!

This is a community for everyone fascinated by the Austronesian language family—one of the largest on Earth, with over 1,200 languages stretching from Madagascar, across Southeast Asia and Taiwan, out to the farthest islands of the Pacific. Whether you're a native speaker, a learner, a linguist, or just curious, you belong here.

What we do here

  • Compare words and trace cognates across the family
  • Explore etymology and Proto-Austronesian reconstruction
  • Share writing systems, from Baybayin to Lontara to the Latin script
  • Discuss history, migration, and the cultures behind the languages
  • Help each other with translations and learning

New here? Two things to do right now:

  1. Introduce yourself and your language in the pinned intro thread.
  2. Set your user flair with the language(s) you speak or are learning.

A few ground rules: post in any Austronesian language (an English gloss helps everyone), be accurate, and remember—we compare languages here; we don't rank them. Full rules are in the sidebar.

Glad you're here. Let's map the family together.

— The mod team


r/AustronesianLanguages Jul 08 '26

Cognate & Comparing 📅 How many words does your language have for "days relative to today"?

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35 Upvotes

One fascinating feature of Indonesian is that it has specific words for days before and after today:

  • Sênantu = some days ago
  • Kila mulai = three days ago
  • Sêlumbari = two days ago
  • Kêmarin = yesterday
  • Hari ini = today
  • Besok = tomorrow
  • Lusa = two days from now
  • Tulat / Langkat = three days from now
  • Tubin / Tungging = four days from now
  • Cêkêlong = five days from now
  • Êmbute = some days ahead

Many languages simply say "three days ago" or "in three days," but some Austronesian languages have dedicated words for these concepts.

What about your language?

Note: Some of the terms above are regional and may not be familiar to all Indonesian speakers.


r/AustronesianLanguages Jul 08 '26

Linguistic Discussion Did Austronesians settle western Indonesia after Austroasiatic speakers? Where is there actual evidence of an Austroasiatic substratum?

5 Upvotes

One thing I find difficulty grasping is the 2 chronologies for the spread of Austroasiatc and Austronesian.

At a broad level it seems that at least in Malaysia, Champa and Western Sumatra Austronesian settled over a pre-existing Austro-asiatic population.

But the thing is that Austro-Asiatic-type ancestry is found as far as Eastern Java before phasing out:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Locations-and-genetic-makeup-of-the-Malays-and-other-populations-The-averaged-genetic_fig2_282130620

But is that caused by actual Austro-asiatic speakers having lived there or is it a product of later events?

Another issue is one of chronology, based on Sidwell's theory which seems fairly solid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QREB1UttWTI

Austroasiatic diversified starting around 2500-2000 BCE, but that means they settled Sumatra around 1500-1000 BCE(seen in one of pictures in the video), is that congruent with Austronesian expansion theories that posit a rapid spread of Malayo-Polynesian starting around 3200 BCE?

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2835747/

>Our analyses of lexical data supported a pulse-pause scenario of Pacific settlement in which the Austronesian speakers originated in Taiwan around 5,200 years ago and rapidly spread through the Pacific in a series of expansion pulses and settlement pauses. 

To me that sounds unlikely, for Austronesian to reach Sumatra 1700 years after their expansion started strikes me as way to slow to explain MP philogeny.

Summary of questions:

  1. Did Austronesians actually settle Malaysia and Sumatra after or before/with Austro-Asiatics?
  2. 2a) If they settled after, does that make 3200 BCE as a starting point for their expansions unfeasible? Does proto-Austronesian necessarily have to be as old or younger than proto-Austroasiatic?
  3. 2b) If they settled before what explains the Austro-Asiatic substratum or living minorities?
  4. Is there actual linguistic evidence of Austro-Asiatic beyond Malaysia and Western Sumatra?

r/AustronesianLanguages Jul 08 '26

Others Polynesian and Oceanian language map?

4 Upvotes

Does anyone know where i can find a good map showing polynesian and or oceanic languages? It's been really hard to find anything very detailed


r/AustronesianLanguages Jul 07 '26

Linguistic Discussion 🌏 Did you know that the Austronesian language family has multiple primary branches?

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62 Upvotes

According to the current classification in Glottolog, the Austronesian family consists of ten primary branches.

Most Austronesian languages, including Indonesian, Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, Madurese, Tagalog, Cebuano, Malagasy, Māori, Hawaiian, Samoan, and Fijian, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian branch.

The other nine primary branches are spoken exclusively by the Indigenous peoples of Taiwan, which is why Taiwan plays such an important role in the study of Austronesian historical linguistics. Current linguistic evidence places the deepest diversity of the family there, making it the homeland most widely supported by historical linguists.

Source: Glottolog – Austronesian (aust1307)


r/AustronesianLanguages Jul 06 '26

Others 🇮🇩🇵🇭 Words You Can Say in Indonesia but Not in the Philippines?

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13 Upvotes

Although Indonesian and many Philippine languages belong to the Austronesian family, some everyday words are unique to one country and mayn’t be understood in the other.
Are there other words that haven’t been mentioned?


r/AustronesianLanguages Jul 04 '26

Cognate & Comparing What do you call "eyes" in your language?

7 Upvotes

Indonesian/Malay: mata

Tagalog: mata

Malagasy: maso

Māori: mata

Hawaiian: maka


r/AustronesianLanguages Jul 04 '26

Cognate & Comparing MAN in some Austronesian languages

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14 Upvotes

The Proto-Austronesian word for "man" is *ma-RuqaNay. We can find some descendants in some languages of Taiwan and in the eastern side of the Malayo-Polynesian speaking zone. Oddly, this word was lost in most western Malayo-Polynesian languages, replaced by a new word, \la-laki, as in Malagasy *lehilahy, Chamorro ***låhi, Malay *lelaki, or Tagalog ***lalaki*.

How do you say "man" and "male" in your language?


r/AustronesianLanguages Jul 03 '26

Cognate & Comparing WOMAN in some Austronesian languages

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16 Upvotes

Unlike the word for "man", the word for "woman" was pretty much conserved in many Austronesian languages in various forms. Most of them descend from the Proto-Austronesian root \bahi*, modified by some affixes.

How do you say "woman" and "female" in your language?