The Proto-Malayo-Polynesian language is the reconstructed

Linguistic reconstruction

Linguistic reconstruction is the practice of establishing the features of the unattested ancestor of one or more given languages. There are two kinds of reconstruction. Internal reconstruction uses irregularities in a single language to make inferences about an earlier stage of that language...

 ancestor of the Malayo-Polynesian languages

Malayo-Polynesian languages

The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. These are widely dispersed throughout the island nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia...

, which is by far the largest branch of the Austronesian language family

Austronesian languages

The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...

. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian is ancestral to all Austronesian languages spoken outside Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, with the possible exception of the Tai–Kadai languages if the hypothesis that Tai–Kadai is descended from proto-Austronesian but not from Malayo-Polynesian is true (see Austro-Tai languages

Austro-Tai languages

Austro-Tai is a hypothesis that the Tai–Kadai and Austronesian language families of southern China and the Pacific are genealogically related. Related proposals include Austric and Sino-Austronesian .-Origins:...

).

External links

• http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/language.php?id=269
• http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/8908/firemount/austroframes.html&date=2009-10-25+11:31:10