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Top: Science: Social_Sciences: Linguistics: Languages: Natural: Austronesian
The Austronesian language family is one of the most widely, geographically distributed language groups extending from Madagascar in the west, Easter Island in the east, Hawai`i in the north and New Zealand in the south.The Austronesian language family comprises of four main branches: Atayalic, Paiwanic, Tsouic and Malayo-Polynesian, the first three of which are found on the island of Formosa (or Taiwan), and therefore placed beneath the top-level category "Formosan".
All other languages fall beneath Malayo-Polynesian, which has been subdivided into Eastern, Central and Western language groups.
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These are the indigenous languages of Taiwan. They are not related to the Chinese language. They are believed to be ancestral to all of the other Austronesian languages.
Malayo-Polynesian is the subdivision in which the bulk of the Austronesian languages lie. It is broadly divided into three categories, Western, Central and Eastern.
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