ProtoAustronesian

Proto-Austronesian (PAN) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Austronesian language family, the world's largest language family by geographic spread. It is not directly attested; knowledge comes from the comparative method, comparing Formosan languages of Taiwan with Malayo-Polynesian languages across maritime Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Madagascar. By identifying regular sound correspondences and shared basic vocabulary, linguists propose a prehistory and a set of phonological and grammatical features for PAN.

Dating PAN is uncertain; estimates commonly place its use several thousand years BCE, roughly 4,000–5,000 BCE, with many scholars proposing a homeland in Taiwan and a subsequent dispersal that reached the Philippines, Maritime Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar.

PAN is reconstructed with a relatively simple consonant system and a three-vowel inventory, plus a glottal stop. The grammar is typically analytic with affixation and reduplication in daughter languages, and a pronominal system distinguishing inclusive and exclusive first-person plural forms. Basic word order in descendants is varied, but PAN reconstructions emphasize a cohesiveless, mainly predicate-centered structure rather than fixed phrase order.

Dispersal patterns and debates: the Out-of-Taiwan model is influential but not universal; some scholars propose alternate routes and homeland hypotheses. Research continues as new Formosan data and comparisons with island languages refine the reconstruction.

Proto-Austronesian remains a foundational construct for historical linguistics, used to frame theories about prehistoric migrations, contact, and technology in Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific. See also Proto-Malayo-Polynesian and Formosan languages.