Page 154 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

Proto-Austronesian

[ Indonesia Proto-Oceanic
Philippines
Taiwan
Madagascar [ New Guinea Proto-Eastern Oceanic
Southeast Asia] Bismarck Archipelago
Solomon Islads
Southern New Hebrides [ North and Central Proto-Central Pacific
Loyalty Islands New Hebrides
New Caledonia ] Nuclear Micronesia
Rotuma ] Proto-Fijian Proto-Polynesian

Austronesian Language Family Distribution Map, Source of Map: (Ross, 2009)

distribution. Austronesian languages are found in a vast area from Madagascar in the west,
across most of Southeast Asia, as far north in East Asia as Taiwan, across parts of New
Guinea, into the Pacific as far as Hawi’i in the north, Easter Island in the South east, and
as far as New Zealand in the south. Austronesian languages are found in all regions of the
Pacific, including Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia. There are also small communities
of speakers of Ausronesian languages in Hainan (the Republic of China), Vietnam, and
Thailand. There are approximately 350 million speakers of languages in the Austronesian
family (Wurm, 2007).

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