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Austronesian Languages: Overview
Abstract
Austronesian is the largest well-established family in the world in terms of the number of languages, while also covering a huge area of the globe. It includes some very large as well as many very small languages, and many are poorly documented. Despite the internal diversity, a substantial amount of phonological, lexical, and morphosyntactic reconstruction has been achieved, and we have a much more solid idea about subgrouping than we do for many more diffuse language families. The linguistic and archeological evidence points to a Proto-Austronesian origin about 5000 years ago in the area of Taiwan.
After the 1898 Philippine revolution, the English language was introduced in the country by the Americans and it began to surmount in the consciousness of the Filipino people. For one century now, this language has become dominant in the Filipino consciousness. Linguistically, it has even influenced the classification of the vocabulary of the Visayan-Cebuano language, i.e., according to the English eight parts of speech. But, as early as 1947, Manuel Yap, bishop and biblical scholar from Carcar, Cebu, objected, saying that the Visayan-Cebuano vocabulary does not fit in the English eight-parts-of-speech classification. This study, then, aims at inquiring into Yap’s own classification of the Visayan-Cebuano vocabulary. In doing this, it uses the descriptive-analysis research design. First, it presents the English eight-parts-of-speech classification, and second, Yap’s classification of the Visayan-Cebuano vocabulary. It concludes that Yap’s classification is the one that fits to the nature of the Visayan-Cebuano vocabulary.
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Robert Blust
Hello,
Just google 'Robert Blust, Austronesian comparative dictionary and you will have the most complete set of Austronesian etymologies available anywhere.
If you still have questions please email me (blust@hawaii.edu).