What do you know about Austronesian languages?
Jonas Sunday, June 12, 2005, 18:11 GMT
...Malay, Bahasa Indonesian, Bali, Javanese, Acehnese, Tetun, Malagasy, Tagalog, Cebuano, Hawaiian, Tongan, Maori, Samoan, et. al.?
How do they sound to you?
Where did this language group originate?
Can a speaker of one understand a speaker of another?
Which is the most radically evolved from the rest?
I really don't know much about these languages but I have heard Indonesian before and it sounds a lot like Australian Indigenous languages.
George,
Don't forget Vietnamese which may be the most important "Austronesian" language. I like the term "Malayo-Polynesian" better to describe all of these languages.
When you actually talk to people who speak these languages: Vietnamese, Tagalog, Samoan etc. they seem to be unaware of any kinship between them. When I mentioned to a Vietnamese guy the other day some words in Indonesian and Tagalog that were similar to certain Vietnamese words he told me that it was probably just a coincidence. I see lots of Tagalog and Samoan word that are similar but a Filipino store clerk I talked to once, she flatly denied that Samoan was any relation to Tagalog.
Between the 7th and 15th centuries, Austronesian speakers were quite active in the iron, ivory and leopard skin trades; even the African slave trade. This is how one Austronesian language eventually established itself in Madagascar.
<<George,
Don't forget Vietnamese which may be the most important "Austronesian" language. I like the term "Malayo-Polynesian" better to describe all of these languages.>>
Brennus,
I merely posted Jonas' earlier thread in an attempt to get things hopping in this new, "improved" Antimoon. I actually know nothing about the Austronesian languages. Although, I checked on Vietnamese and it's classified as belonging to the Austroasiatic language family, not the Austronesian.
But, in response to Jonas' question about how these languages sound - I've only heard Tagalog and Hawaiian spoken, and they sound quite nice to my ears. Very melodious with all those open vowel sounds.
George - Gotcha. However, Australoasiatic, Austronesian and a few others all seem to be part of a larger Malayo-Polynesian superfamily as evidenced in their words for 'eye' e.g. Vietnamese con mat, Tagalog, Ilokano mata, Malayan, Indonesian mata (found in the name of the famous spy Mata Hari - Eye of the sun), Samoan mat etc.
It's much easier to just call them all "Malayo-Polynesian" especially if you are not a specialest in Southeast Asian or Indo-Pacific llanguages (and I think few language majors still are).
I am a native speaker of bahasa Indonesia as well as a native speaker of Sunda ; while My mother can speak bahasa Indonesia, Java (her mother tongue), and Sunda as well.
Our founding fathers decided to use malay ( a relatively simple language ) as a "core language" to build a national identity, and bahasa Indonesia has been developed since then. Now, bahasa Indonesia is used widely by Indonesians as their second or first mother toungue. Bahasa has been used in governance area, higher education, formal meeting,....etc.
When our founding fathers chose it, Malay was not The most spoken language at that time. The most spoken language was Javanese, then Sundanese, Madurese, and Balinese in the fourth place. These four languages are still more complex in structure and more vocabulated than Malay.
As far as I know, Bahasa Indonesia is relatively close to Malay (Indonesian Malay or Malaysian Malay), Minangkabau, and Acehnese. Some people who know Tagalog said that Tagalog share almost the same structure and has so many similar words.
The four most developed language (at the time our founding fathers chose Malay) are close to each other in structure and vocabulary.
George
How do they sound to you?
Where did this language group originate?
Can a speaker of one understand a speaker of another?
Which is the most radically evolved from the rest?
1. It depends on how you see it. Indonesia alone has almost 300 languages. They sound differently one another. Some languages have very strong accent (Batak, Aceh, Madura), while some have melodious accent. Sundanese is the most melodious of all, just ask Indonesian. I don't know much about non-Indonesian "Austronesian" languages.
2. There is a theory that these Austronesian originated somewhere in southern china.
3. Most of the Speakers of Sundanese and Javanese understand each other. Most of Sundanese or Javanese speakers understand Malay, minangkabau, Aceh or Other Sumatran languages easily, Because they are similar to bahasa Indonesia ; while the speakers of those languages might have difficulties to understand Sunda, Java, Bali or Madura.
4. I have read an essay which said that Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, and Madurese are the most developed languages Among Austronesian languages, because they have "Level" in their structure. And Javanese is the most complex language in the group.
Of course I do think that Austronesian languages are not as complex as Indo european or semitic languages.
Sorry, the above message was from me.
I don't know about most of these languages but as for Hawaiian, Samoan and Tongan...they are very similar. many samoans and tongans converse in their native tongues to each other. maori's can also partially understand samoan through their language. samoan and hawaiian are very similar in their words and pronunciation...i only speak samoan and a little bit of hawaiian but tongans can tell me words similar to samoan words that have the same meaning.
Okay. I agree with you, Samoan, Hawaiian and Togan are very similar in pronunciation, but some have same words but different meanings.
'I see lots of Tagalog and Samoan word that are similar but a Filipino store clerk I talked to once, she flatly denied that Samoan was any relation to Tagalog.'
Because for most part, Filipinos would defaultly think that Indonesian and Malay are the closest to Tagalog. In fact, many Filipinos are not aware of the relations between Tagalog and Samoan