NOTE > THE AUSTRONESIAN PEOPLE

• The Austronesian peoples > A large group of people in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, Coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia and Madagascar that speak Austronesian language. .
• A large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia and Madagascar that speak Austronesian-language .
• The name Austronesia comes from the Latin, 'Australis' meaning 'Southern' and 'Nesos' meaning 'Island'. 
• Based on the current scientific consensus, the Austronesian was originated from a pre-historic seaborne migration, known as Austronesian Expansion, also called "Out of Taiwan Model" from pre-Han Taiwan at around 1,500 to 1,000 BCE> 
• Info Galactic > List of Austronesia Region 
• 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. 
• Austronesian language according to Britannica is formerly Malayo-Polynesian language, family of language spoken in most of the Indonesian archipelago, all of the Philippines, Madagascar, and the island groups of the Central and South Pacific (except for Australia and much of New Guinea), much of Malaysia, and scattered area of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Taiwan. 
• Major Austronesian languages include Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Bicol, Waray-Waray, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan of the Philippines; Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Minangkabau, the Batak languages, Acehnese, Balinese, and Buginese of western Indonesia; and Malagasy of Madagascar. Each of these languages has more than one million speakers.
• The oldest inscription about Austronesia Language is in the Cham language, the Dong Yen Chau Inscription  dated to mid-6th century A.D. 
• Malayo-Polynesian language is a sub-Group of Austronesian language, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. Spoken by Austronesian People outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia and in the areas near Malay Peninsula, Cambodian, Vietnam and the Chinese Island of Hainan. 
• The Malay language is spoken by 250 million people, makes its the 8th most-spoken language in the world.    
• Malay Archipelago : -      “Kepulauan Melayu” in Malaya > the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia.  
  It has also been called the "Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipelago and other names over time.
• Approximately 110 Austronesian languages are spoken in Malaysia, mostly in the Bornean state of Sabah dan Sarawak.
• In 1706, the Dutch Scholar Adriaan Reland first observed similarities between the languages spoken in the Malay Archipelago and by the people in the Pacific Ocean. 
• The earliest written documents in an Austronesian language are 3 old Malay inscriptions from the southern Sumatra dating to the late 7th century. 
• The earliest European documents on language of the Austronesian family are two short vocabularies collected by Antonio Pigafetta, the Italian chronicler of the Magellan expedition of 1519 - 22. 
• Austronesians were the first people to invent oceangoing sailing technologies which enable their rapid dispersal into the islands of the Indo-Pacific.
• Johann Friedrich Blumenbach added Austronesians as the 5th category to his "varieties" of humans in the second edition of "De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa" (1781). In the 3rd edition published in 1795, he named Austronesians the "Malay race" or the "brown race" after correspondence with Joseph Banks who was part of the first voyage of James Cook. Blumenbach used the term "Malay" due to his belief that most Austronesians spoke the "Malay idiom"
• In 1899, the Austrian linguist and ethnologist Wilhelm Schmidt coined the term “Austronesian”. He proposed the term as replacement to “Malayo-Polynesian” languages.
• The British naturalist James Cowles Prichard classified the people of Austronesia into 2 groups :Malayo-Polynesian and Kelaenonesians (equivalent to Australo-Melanesians)

• Australasia : A region which comprises Australia and New Zealand and some neighbouring islands. 
• Australoid : describing the tribes or populations of Native Australia which was introduced by Thomas Huxley in 1870. 
• Australo - Melanesians : outdated historical grouping of various people indigenous to Melanesia and Australia. 
• According to Robert Blust (1999) Austronesian is divided in several primary branches, all but one of which are found exclusively in Taiwan. 
• 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.
• 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. 
• Melanesian : 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 include the Arafura Sea e.g: Fiji, Kanak, Ni-Vanuatu, Solomon Island etc...
• Micronesian : A sub-region of Ocenia, consistingof thousands of small islands in the Western Pacific Ocean > Carolina, Chamorro, Palauns etc..

LIST OF AUSTRONESIAN PEOPLE

Austronesian peoples include the following grouping by name and geographic location :

· Formosan : Taiwan (e.g Amis, Atayal, Bunun, Paiwan etc..)

· Malayo-Polynesian:

o Borneo groups > Kadazan-Dusun, Murut, Iban, Bidayuh, Dayak, Lun Bawang / Lundayeh

o Chamic Group > Cambodia, Hainan, Cham areas of Vietnam (remnant of Champa Kingdom)

o Central Luzon Group > Kapampangan, Pangasinan and Sambal.

o Igorot (Cordillerans) > Cordilleras (e.g.: Balangao, Ibaloi, Ifugao, Itneg, Kankaney)

o Lumad > Mindanao (e.g : Kamayo, Mandaya, Mansaka, Kalagan, Manobo, Tasaday, T’boli)

o Malagasy > Madagascar (eg: Betsileo, Merina, Sihanaka, Bezanozano)

o Melanesians > Melanesia (e.g: Fijians, Kanak, Ni-Vanuatu, Solomon Island) > A subregion of Oceania in the Southwestern Pacific, extends from the island of New Guinea in the west to Tonga in the east,  and includes the Arafura Sea.

o Micronesian > Micronesia (e.g: Carolina, Chamorro, Palauans) > A sub-region of Ocenia, consisting of thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean.

o Moken > Burma & Thailand

o Moro > Bangsamoro (Mindanao & Sulu Archipelago e.g: Maguindanao, Iranun, Maranao, Tausug, Yakan, Sama-Bajau).

o Northern Luzon lowlanders > Ilocano, Ibanag, Itawes

o Polynesians > Polynesia (e.g : Maori, Native Hawaiian, Samoans, Tonga) > A sub-region of Oceania, made-up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The term Polynesie was first used in 1756 by the French writer Charles de Brosses.

o Southern Luzon > Tagalog & Bicolano

o Sunda – Sulawesi > Malay, Sundanese, Javanese, Balinese, Batak, Malaysia, Brunei, Pattani, Singapore, Cocos (Keeling) island, parts of Sri Lanka,southern Myanmar and much of western and central Indonesia.

o Visayans > Visayas and neighbouring islands. > Aklanon, Boholano, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Masbateno & Waray.

AUSTRONESIAN REGION

MADAGASCAR
2. TAIWAN
3. MARITIME SOUTHEAST ASIA:
· BRUNEI
· EAST TIMOR
· INDONESIA
· MALAYSIA
· PHILIPPINES
· SINGAPORE
· The Pattani region of Thailand
· The Chamic areas of Vietnam, Cambodia and Hainan Island.

4. SOUTH ASIA
· SRI LANKA
· ANDAMAN ISLAND >inhabited by Orang laut

5. MICRONESIA > The term “Micronesia” was coined by Jules D’Ormont in 1893.
· The Federated State of Micronesia
· The Republic of Marshall Islands
· The Republic of Palau
· The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
· The Republic of Nauru
· The Republic of Kiribati
· The Territory of Guam
· The Territory of Wake Island

6. MELANESIA > The term “Micronesia” was coined by Jules D’Ormont in 1893.
· Fiji
· New Caledonia
· New Guinea
· Solomon Islands
· Vanuatu
· Maluku Islands > politically in Indonesia
· Torres Strait Islands > politically in Australia.

Other islands with populations of mixed Melanesian ancestry but are not part of the traditional Melanesian area include:
· Nauru
· Timor > politically split between Indonesia and East Timor.
· Maluku Utara > politically in Indonesia
· Flores > politically in Indonesia
· Sumba > politically in Indonesia

7. POLYNESIA > the term POLYNESIA was coined by Charles de Brosses in 1756.
· American Samoa (U.S. Territories)
· Cook Islands
· Easter Island (part of Chile called Rapa Nui)
· Fiji
· French Polynesia (Territory of France)
· Hawaii
· Loyalty Islands (a dependency of the French territory of New Caledonia)
· New Zealand (Maori)
· Niue (a self-governing dependency of N.Z)
· Rotuma
· Samoa
· Swain Island
· Tokelau
· Tonga
· Tuvalu
· Wallis and Futuna

 Reference :

1. Wikipedia - Austronesian People

2. Wikipedia - Austronesian language

3. Britannica.com - Austronesian language

4. Hj Zulheimy Maamor - Austronesia in History

5. Info Galactic - Austronesia people

Hj Zulheimy Maamor

29 January 2022 > 27 Jamadilakhir 1443H: 10.59 pm