Monday 3 October 2022

FAQ ABOUT AUSTRONESIA

Who is considered Austronesian?
The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austronesian languages. The name Austronesia comes from the Latin 'Australis' meaning 'Southern' and 'Nesos' meaning 'Island'.

What is Austronesian Language?
A language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (Taiwanese Indigenous peoples). The Austronesian language family is among the world's largest, includes about one-fifth of the world's languages .The only Austronesian Language spoken outside of Southeast Asia is Malagasy, spoken in Madagascar. The single largest Austronesian language is the Malay-Indonesian language. 

How old is the Austronesian language?
The oldest inscription in the Cham language, the Đông Yên Châu inscription dated to the mid-6th century AD at the latest, is the first attestation of any Austronesian language.

Did the Austronesian ancestors speak a common language before the Austronesian language was divided into thousands of languages?

There was a proto-Austronesian language, and if you are ethnically Polynesian, Malay, Malagasy or some other Austronesian-speaking group, you probably have some of them among your ancestors.

However, you also have ancestors who spoke different languages. In Malacca, for example, people used to speak Austroasiatic languages (some tribes still do), and modern Malaysians descend from both.

(Helene Hogsbro Thygesen - Ph.D in Biostatistics, University of Amsterdam (2006)


Where did Austronesian originate from?
Based on the current scientific consensus, they originated from a prehistoric seaborne migration, known as Austronesian Expansion, also calle 'Out of Taiwan Model' from pre-Han Taiwan at around 1,500 to 1,000 BCE.

Did Austronesians originate from Asia?
Ancient Austronesians did indeed originate from the mainland of Asia, in the Yangtze River Valley in Jiangsu, China in the form of the Neolithic Majiabang and Liangzhu Cultures that existed between ~7000 and 2500 BCE and elsewhere along China’s eastern coasts before migrating to Taiwan around 4,000 BC and the Philippines by 3,000 BC. Austronesian civilization would continue over the millenia in Southeast Asia as they migrated to a strategic trading zone, allowing them to integrate into the world economy.

Is Austronesian a race or ethnicity?
The term 'Austronesian" was originally used to refer to the language family. But yes, it is also used to refer to Austronesian-speakers who do share a common ancestry, common migration history, common ancestral traditions, common domesticated plants and animals, and common material culture. In particular, they are all descendants of a massive seaborne migration that originated from Taiwan at around 3000 BC.

Are Austronesians Sailors?
Austronesians have been sailing the Pacific for thousands of years, expanding into the far reaches of the Eastern and Northern Pacific as early as 3000 to 4000 years ago . Without any navigational instruments, they developed skills for oceanic voyaging by using monsoon and trade winds, and the ocean currents.

Who are the Austronesians in the Philippines?
According to historians, some 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, groups of people from Indonesia and Malaysia arrived in the islands of the Philippines to be its first settlers. Both of these countries belong to the Austronesian region and they brought with them their own cultures, traditions as well as languages.

Are Austronesian and Polynesian the same?
Polynesians, including Samoans, Tongans, Niueans, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian Mā'ohi, Hawaiian Māoli, Marquesans and New Zealand Māori, are a subset of the Austronesian peoples.The most direct way to distinguish Polynesian peoples from other Austronesian peoples is by Geography.

What is the difference between Austronesian and Malayo-Polynesian?
The Malayo-Polynesian is a branch of Austronesian, means all Austronesian language outside of Taiwan. 
Malayo-Polynesian language is a sub-group of Austronesian language, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. 

What is Australasia ?
A region which comprises Australia and New Zealand and some neighbouring islands. 

What is Australoid?
Describing the tribes or populations of Native Australia which was introduced by Thomas Huxley in 1870. 

What is Australo-Melanesians?
Outdated historical grouping of various people indigenous to Melanesia and Australia. 

What is the Formosan Language?
The Formosan languages of Taiwan are grouped into as many as nine first-order subgroups of Austronesian. All Austronesian languages spoken outside Taiwan (including its offshore Yami language) belong to the Malayo-Polynesian (sometimes called Extra-Formosan) branch.

What is Melanesians?
A sub-region of Ocenia in the Southwestern Pacific, extends from the Island of New Guinea in the West to Tonga in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea e.g: Fiji, Kanak, Ni-Vanuatu, Solomon Island etc...

What is Micronesians?
A sub-region of Ocenia, consisting of thousands of small islands in the Western Pacific Ocean, etc Carolina, Chamorro, Palauans etc...

Is Japanese related to Austronesian?
A hypothesis that Japanese is a mix of Austronesian and Altaic. The theory of an Altaic superstratum and Austronesian substratum basically means that an Austronesian language was spoken in early Japan, but later on an Altaic language took over.
Japanese language is part of Japonic language family. Japanese people are Japanese people, only that they are closer to some Austronesian groups. 
There are also the ancient Hayato people - Wikipedia. They are suggested to be Austronesian tribes in Japan before the Yayoi-migration as well as the Kumaso and Azumi tribes. These Hayato have assimilated or pushed back the local Jomon (it is suggested that the Hayato invaded southern Kyushu and conquerd this place during the Jomon period).

Where did Austronesian people come from?
Austronesian ancestry is found throughout Indonesia. But where the inhabitants of the large western islands have strong genetic ties to the Southeast Asian mainland, the inhabitants of the islands east of Bali have very little.

What are the two Austronesian theories?
There are two major hypotheses defining the Neolithic Age Austronesian movement: the “out of Taiwan or South China” theory by the language-oriented Peter Bellwood; and 'Island Origin” theory by the Southeast Asian specialist, the archaeologist, Wilhelm Solheim; and another by Prof. Dr. Stephen Oppenheimer.

Is Malay an Austronesian?
Malays (Malay: Orang Melayu, Jawi: أورڠ ملايو) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to eastern Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands that lie between these locations — areas that are collectively known as the Malay world.
The Malay language is spoken by 250 million people, makes its the 8th most-spoken language in the world.    

Which race come to Malaysia first?
Evidence of modern human habitation in Malaysia dates back 40,000 years. In the Malay Peninsulathe first inhabitants are thought to be Negritos. Traders and settlers from India and China arrived as early as the first century AD, establishing trading ports and coastal towns in the second and third centuries.
The oldest complete skeleton found in Malaysia is 11,000-year-old Perak Man unearthed in 1991. The indigenous groups on the peninsula can be divided into three ethnicities, the Negritos, the Senoi, and the proto-Malays. The first inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula were most probably Negritos.

Is Hawaii part of Austronesian?
Around 5,000 years ago, Austronesians began a millennia-long expansion into the Pacific from Taiwan. They carried their knowledge of navigation and farming more than halfway around the world. They expanded through the Philippines and Indonesia all the way to Hawaii in the east and Madagascar in the west.
The Hawaiian Language: Belongs to the Austronesian group, which seems to have dispersed from Taiwan ~3000 years ago. Polynesians languages, a subgroup of very closely related languages, originated in the area of Samoa as speakers of Austronesian languages spread into the islands of the south Pacific.

Is Maori an Austronesian language?
Māori language, Māori te reo Māori, Eastern Polynesian subgroup of the Eastern Austronesian (Oceanic) languages, spoken in the Cook Islands and New Zealand. Since the Māori Language Act of 1987, it has been one of the two official languages of New Zealand.

Is Taiwan as Austronesian?
The Austronesian language family, which originated in Taiwan, spans half the world from Madagascar to Easter Island. Despite centuries of colonization and assimilation policies, that 17 indigenous languages survive in Taiwan to this day is a testament to the resiliency of Taiwan's indigenous peoples.

Who made the Austronesian Theory?
The Austronesian Migration Theory propounds on the expansion of a group of people called the Austronesians from Asia into the Pacific by means of Taiwan 6,000 years ago. It was a theory proposed by Peter Bellwood a professor of Archeology.

Are Filipinos Austronesian?
Most Filipinos today are Austronesian. The only other country that has a larger Austronesian population is Indonesia with 275 million people. The Austronesian colonised the Philippines around 3,000 BCE. 

Is Singapore an Austronesian?
Singapore's location at the narrowest point between the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific means that it must have been influenced over the millennia not just by Malay or Malayic, but also by languages belonging to more distantly related Austronesian sub-groups.

Are Vietnamese Austronesian?
Vietnam is the homeland of many ethnicities including Cham people. The Cham language is classified as the Austronesian language family.Cham people had built their own Kingdom in Central Vietnam for thousands of years before being incorporated with the Dai Viet Kingdom. Nowadays, the Vietnamese Cham people are descendants of the Cham civilization have lived in Central Vietnam today.

Why do some Vietnamese have a very Austronesian (Malay, Filipino) face but some have a very Chinese face although they are all Kinh Vietnamese?

Vietnam used to be a home of Austronesian people, same as the majority of Filipinos, Indonesians, bruniens, etc. . It's called the Champa or kingdom of Champa.

Are Negritos Austronesians?
The question is not well formed. Austronesian is a language family, not an ethnicity. Austronesian languages cover half the globe, from Madagascar in the west to Easter Island in the east. Negritos are not a single ethnicity: there are the Andaman and Nicobar Islanders, the Semang and Batek of the Malay Peninsula, the Maniq of Thailand, and about 30 ethnicities in the Philippines. These groups share only a general appearance (short and dark), but are genetically more closely related to their neighbors than to other Negrito groups. Some Negrito groups speak Austronesian languages, some do not.

How did Austronesians get to Madagascar?
The Austronesian diaspora is believed to have been initiated by the migration of the Lapita peoples from Taiwan around 5,500 years ago, who settled throughout Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean just off the coast of East Africa.

What is Maritime Southeast Asia?
Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the countries of Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. 


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Updated:
3 October 2022 : 7 Rabiulawal 1444H: 9.52 pm