Proto-Austronesian


Proto-Austronesian is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families.
Lower-level reconstructions have also been made, and include Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, Proto-Oceanic, and Proto-Polynesian. Recently, linguists such as Malcolm Ross and Andrew Pawley have built large lexicons for Proto-Oceanic and Proto-Polynesian.

Phonology

Proto-Austronesian is reconstructed by constructing sets of correspondences among consonants in the various Austronesian languages, according to the comparative method. Although in theory the result should be unambiguous, in practice given the large number of languages there are numerous disagreements, with various scholars differing significantly on the number and nature of the phonemes in Proto-Austronesian. In the past, some disagreements concerned whether certain correspondence sets were real or represent sporadic developments in particular languages. For the currently remaining disagreements, however, scholars generally accept the validity of the correspondence sets but disagree on the extent to which the distinctions in these sets can be projected back to proto-Austronesian or represent innovations in particular sets of daughter languages.

Blust's reconstruction

Below are Proto-Austronesian phonemes reconstructed by Robert Blust, a professor of linguistics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. A total of 25 Proto-Austronesian consonants, 4 vowels, and 4 diphthongs were reconstructed. However, Blust acknowledges that some of the reconstructed consonants are still controversial and debated.
The symbols below are frequently used in reconstructed Proto-Austronesian words.
*D only appears in final position, *z/*c/*ñ only in initial and medial position, while *j is restricted to medial and final position.
The Proto-Austronesian vowels are a, i, u, and ə.
The diphthongs, which are diachronic sources of individual vowels, are:
In 2010, John Wolff published his Proto-Austronesian reconstruction in Proto-Austronesian phonology with glossary. Wolff reconstructs a total of 19 consonants, 4 vowels, 4 diphthongs, and syllabic stress.
The following table shows how Wolff's Proto-Austronesian phonemic system differs from Blust's system.

Other reconstructions

According to Malcolm Ross, the following aspects of Blust's system are uncontroversial: the labials ; the velars k ŋ; y; R; the vowels; and the above four diphthongs. There is some disagreement about the postvelars and the velars g j, and about whether there are any more diphthongs; however, in these respects, Ross and Blust are in agreement. The major disagreement concerns the system of coronal consonants. The following discussion is based on Ross.
Otto Dempwolff's reconstruction of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian from the 1930s included:
Dyen, including data from the Formosan languages, expanded Dempwolff's set of coronal consonants:
Tsuchida, building on Dyen's system:
Dahl reduced Tsuchida's consonants into:
Blust based his system on a combination of Dyen, Tsuchida and Dahl, and attempted to reduce the total number of phonemes. He accepted Dahl's reduction of Dyen's S X x into S but did not accept either Tsuchida's or Dahl's split of Dyen's d; in addition, he reduced Dyen's s1 s2 to a single phoneme s. While accepting Dyen's c, he was hesitant about T and D.
Ross likewise attempted to reduce the number of phonemes, but in a different way:
As Proto-Austronesian transitioned to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, Proto-Oceanic, and Proto-Polynesian, the phonemic inventories were continually reduced by merging formerly distinct sounds into one sound. Three mergers were observed in the Proto-Austronesian to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian transition, while nine were observed for the Proto-Oceanic to Proto-Polynesian transition. Thus, Proto-Austronesian has the most elaborate sound system, while Proto-Polynesian has the fewest phonemes. For instance, the Hawaiian language is famous for having only eight consonants, while Māori has only ten consonants. This is a sharp reduction from the 25 consonants of the Proto-Austronesian language that was originally spoken near Taiwan or Kinmen.
Blust also observed the following mergers and sound changes between Proto-Austronesian and Proto-Malayo-Polynesian.
Proto-AustronesianProto-Malayo-Polynesian
*C/t*t
*N/n*n
*S/h*h
*eS*ah

However, according to Wolff, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian's development from Proto-Austronesian only included the following three sound changes.
Proto-Oceanic merged even more phonemes. This is why modern-day Polynesian languages have some of the most restricted consonant inventories in the world.
Proto-Malayo-PolynesianProto-Oceanic
*b/p*p
*mb/mp*b
*c/s/z/j*s
*nc/nd/nz/nj*j
*g/k*k
*ŋg/ŋk*g
*d/r*r
*e/-aw*o
*-i/uy/iw*i

Unusual sound changes that occurred within the Austronesian language family are:

Word order

Proto-Austronesian is a verb-initial language, as most Formosan languages, all Philippine languages, some Bornean languages, all Austronesian dialects of Madagascar, and all Polynesian languages are verb-initial. However, most Austronesian languages of Indonesia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and Micronesia are SVO, or verb-medial, languages. SOV, or verb-final, word order is considered to be typologically unusual for Austronesian languages, and is only found in various Austronesian languages of New Guinea and to a more limited extent, the Solomon Islands. This is because SOV word order is very common in the non-Austronesian Papuan languages.

Voice system

The Austronesian languages of Taiwan, Borneo, Madagascar and the Philippines are also well known for their unusual morphosyntactic alignment, which is known as the Austronesian alignment. This alignment was also present in the Proto-Austronesian language. Unlike Proto-Austronesian, however, Proto-Oceanic syntax does not make use of the focus morphology present in Austronesian-aligned languages such as the Philippine languages. In the Polynesian languages, verbal morphology is relatively simple, while the main unit in a sentence is the phrase rather than the word.
Below is a table of John Wolff's Proto-Austronesian voice system from Blust. Wolff's "four-voice" system was derived from evidence in various Formosan and Philippine languages.
Independent
Independent
Future-general
action		DependentSubjunctive
Actor voice-um--inum-?ø-a
Direct passive-en-in-r- -en-a?
Local passive-an-in-anr- -an-i-ay
Instrumental passivei-i- -in- ?-an ?

However, Ross notes that what may be the most divergent languages, Tsou, Rukai, and Puyuma, are not addressed by this reconstruction, which therefore cannot claim to be alignment system of the protolanguage of the entire family. He calls the unit to which this reconstruction applies Nuclear Austronesian.

Interrogatives and case markers

The following table compares Proto-Austronesian and Proto-Malayo-Polynesian question words.
EnglishProto-AustronesianProto-Malayo-Polynesian
what*-anu*apa
who*-ima*i-sai
where*i-nu*i nu
when*ija-n*p-ijan
how*-anu*kua

Currently, the most complete reconstruction of the Proto-Austronesian case marker system is offered by Malcolm Ross. The reconstructed case markers are as follows:
Common nounsSingular
personal nouns		Plural
personal nouns
Neutral*a, *u*i–
Nominative*k-a*k-u–
Genitive*n-a, *n-u*n-i*n-i-a
Accusative*C-a, *C-u*C-i–
Oblique*s-a, *s-u––
Locative*d-a––

Important Proto-Austronesian grammatical words include the ligature *na and locative *i.

Morphology

and syntax are often hard to separate in the Austronesian languages, particularly the Philippine languages. This is because the morphology of the verbs often affects how the rest of the sentence would be constructed.

Affixes

Below are some Proto-Austronesian affixes reconstructed by Robert Blust. For instance, *pa- was used for non-stative causatives, while *pa-ka was used for stative causatives. Blust also noted a p/m pairing phenomenon in which many affixes have both p- and m- forms. This system is especially elaborate in the Thao language of Taiwan.
AffixGloss
*ka-inchoative, stative, past time, accompanied action/person, abstract noun formative, manner in which an action is carried out, past participle
*ma-stative
*maka-abilitative/aptative
*maki/pakipetitive
*maŋactor voice
*paŋinstrumental voice
*maʀ-actor voice
*paʀ-instrumental noun
*mu-movement
*pacausative
*paʀi-reciprocal/collective action
*qali/kali-sensitive connection with the spirit world
*Sa-instrumental voice
*Si-instrumental voice
*-aninstrumental voice: imperative
*Sika-ordinal numeral
*tasudden, unexpected, or accidental action
*-um-actor voice: transitivity, etc.
*-in-perfective, nominalizer
*-ar-plural
*-anlocative voice
*-ilocative voice: imperative
*-enpatient voice
*-apatient voice: imperative
*-ayfuture
*ka- -anadversative passive, abstract nouns

Reduplication

CV reduplication is very common among the Austronesian languages. In Proto-Austronesian, Ca-reduplicated numbers were used to count humans, while the non-reduplicated sets were used to count non-human and inanimate objects. CV-reduplication was also used to nominalize verbs in Proto-Austronesian. In Ilocano, CV-reduplication is used to pluralize nouns.
Reduplication patterns include :
Other less common patterns are :

Pronouns

The Proto-Austronesian and Proto-Malayo-Polynesian personal pronouns below were reconstructed by Robert Blust.
Type of PronounEnglishProto-AustronesianProto-Malayo-Polynesian
1s."I"*i-aku*i-aku
2s."you/thou"*i-Su*i-kahu
3s."he/she/it"*si-ia*si-ia
1p. "we "*i-ita*i-ita
1p. "we "*i-ami*i-ami
2p."you all"*i-kamu*i-kamu, ihu
3p."they"*si-ida*si-ida

In 2006, Malcolm Ross also proposed seven different pronominal categories for persons. The categories are listed below, with the Proto-Austronesian first person singular given as examples.
  1. Neutral
  2. Nominative 1
  3. Nominative 2
  4. Accusative
  5. Genitive 1
  6. Genitive 2
  7. Genitive 3
The following is from Ross' 2002 proposal of the Proto-Austronesian pronominal system, which contains five categories, including the free, free polite, and three genitive categories.
FreeFree politeGenitive 1Genitive 2Genitive 3
1s.*aku–*=ku*maku*n-aku
2s.*Su*ka-Su*=Su*miSu*ni-Su
3s.*s-ia––*n-ia
1p. *i-ami*k-ami*=mi*mami*n-ami
1p. *ita*k-ita*=ta*mita*n-ita
2p.*i-amu*k-amu*=mu*mamu*n-amu
3p.*si-da––*ni-da

Nouns

Proto-Austronesian vocabulary relating to agriculture and other technological innovations include:
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian innovations include:
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian also has several words for house:
Body partProto-AustronesianProto-Malayo-PolynesianProto-OceanicProto-Polynesian
hand*lima*lima*lima*lima
leg, foot*qaqay*qaqay*waqe*waqe
head*qulu*qulu*qulu, *bwatu*qulu
eye*maCa*mata*mata*mata
ear*Caliŋa*taliŋa*taliŋa*taliŋa
nose*mujiŋ*ijuŋ*isuŋ*isu
mouth*ŋusu*baqbaq*papaq*ŋutu
blood*daRaq*daRaq*draRaq*toto
liver*qaCay*qatay*qate*qate
bone*CuqelaN*tuqelaŋ*suri*hui
skin*qaNiC*kulit*kulit*kili
back*likud*likud*muri, *takuRu*tuqa
belly*tiaN*tian, *kempuŋ*tian*manawa
intestines*Cinaqi*tinaqi*tinaqi
breast*susu*susu*susu*susu, *huhu
shoulder*qabaRa*qabaRa*paRa*uma
neck*liqeR*liqeR*Ruqa, *liqoR*ua
hair*bukeS*buhek*raun ni qulu*lau-qulu
tooth*nipen*ipen, *nipen*nipon, *lipon*nifo

KinshipProto-AustronesianProto-Malayo-PolynesianProto-OceanicProto-Polynesian
person, human being*Cau*tau*taumataq*taŋata
mother*t-ina*t-ina*tina*tinana
father*t-ama*t-ama*tama*tamana
child*aNak*anak*natu*tama
man, male*ma-Ruqanay*laki, *ma-Ruqanay*mwaRuqane*taqane
woman, female*bahi*bahi*pine, *papine*fafine
house*Rumaq*Rumaq, *balay, *banua*Rumwaq*fale

Animals

No.Common nameScientific nameProto-Austronesian
6845the Formosan rock monkeyMacaca cyclopis*luCuŋ
7228deer sp.Cervus sp., either the sika deer or sambar deer*benan
7187Formosan blind moleTalpa insularis*mumu
709a doveDucula spp.?*baRuj
7127omen birdAlcippe spp.*SiSiN
234termite, white antIsoptera*aNay
6861jungle leechHaemadipsa spp.*-matek
6862jungle leechHaemadipsa spp.*qaNi-matek

Plants

Colors and directions

Below are colors in reconstructed Proto-Austronesian, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, Proto-Oceanic, and Proto-Polynesian. The first three have been reconstructed by Robert Blust, while the Proto-Polynesian words given below were reconstructed by Andrew Pawley. Proto-Polynesian displays many innovations not found in the other proto-languages.
ColorProto-AustronesianProto-Malayo-PolynesianProto-OceanicProto-Polynesian
white*ma-puNi*ma-putiq*ma-puteq*tea
black*ma-CeŋeN*ma-qitem*ma-qetom*quli
red*ma-puteq*ma-iRaq*meRaq*kula
yellow–*ma-kunij*aŋo*reŋareŋa, *felo
green*mataq*mataq*karakarawa*mata

The Proto-Austronesians used two types of directions, which are the land-sea axis and the monsoon axis. The cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west developed among the Austronesian languages only after contact with the Europeans. For the land-sea axis, upstream/uphill and inland, as well as downstream/downhill and seaward, are synonym pairs. This has been proposed as evidence that Proto-Austronesians used to live on a mainland, since the sea would be visible from all angles on small islands.
In Kavalan, Amis, and Tagalog, the reflexes of *timuR mean "south" or "south wind," while in the languages of the southern Philippines and Indonesia it means "east" or "east wind."
In Ilocano, dáya and láud respectively mean "east" and "west," while in Puyuma, ɖaya and ɭauɖ respectively mean "west" and "east." This is because the Ilocano homeland is the west coast of northern Luzon, while the Puyuma homeland is located on the eastern coast of southern Taiwan. Among the Bontok, Kankanaey, and Ifugaw languages of northern Luzon, the reflexes of *daya mean "sky" due to the fact that they already live in some of the highest elevations in the Philippines.
Also, the Malay reflex of *lahud is laut, which means "sea", used as directions timur laut and barat laut. Meanwhile, *daya only performs in barat daya, which means "southwest".
On the other hand, the Javanese reflex of *lahud, lor, means "north" since the Java Sea is located to the north of the island of Java.

Numerals

Below are reconstructed Proto-Austronesian, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, Proto-Oceanic, and Proto-Polynesian numbers from the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database.
NumberProto-AustronesianProto-Malayo-PolynesianProto-OceanicProto-Polynesian
one*esa, *isa*esa, *isa*sa-kai, *ta-sa, *tai, *kai*taha
two*duSa*duha*rua*rua
three*telu*telu*tolu*tolu
four*Sepat*epat*pat, *pati, *pani*faa
five*lima*lima*lima*lima

The Proto-Austronesian language had different sets of numerals for non-humans and humans . Cardinal numerals for counting humans are derived from the non-human numerals through Ca-reduplication. This bipartite numeral system is found in Thao, Puyuma, Yami, Chamorro, and various other languages. In many Philippine languages such as Tagalog, the two numeral systems are merged.
NumberSet ASet BTagalog
one*isa*?isa
two*duSa*da-duSadalawa
three*telu*ta-telutatlo
four*Sepat*Sa-Sepatapat
five*lima*la-limalima
six*enem*a-enemanim
seven*pitu*pa-pitupito
eight*walu*wa-waluwalo
nine*Siwa*Sa-Siwa
ten*sa-puluq*?sampu

Proto-Austronesian also used *Sika- to derive ordinal numerals.

Verbs

Below are reconstructed Proto-Austronesian, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, Proto-Oceanic, and Proto-Polynesian verbs from the .
VerbProto-AustronesianProto-Malayo-PolynesianProto-OceanicProto-Polynesian
to walk*Nakaw*lakaw, paNaw*lako, pano*fano
to swim*Naŋuy*naŋuy*kakaRu*kaukau
to know*bajaq*taqu*taqu*qiloa
to think*nemnem*demdem*rodrom*manatu
to sleep*tuduR*tuduR*turuR*mohe
to stand*diRi*diRi, *tuqud*tuqur*tuqu
to sew*taSiq*tahiq, *zaqit*saqit, *turi*tui
to die, be dead*m-aCay*m-atay*mate*mate
to choose*piliq*piliq*piliq*fili
to fly*layap*layap, Rebek*Ropok*lele

Monosyllabic roots

The following are monosyllabic Proto-Austronesian roots reconstructed by John Wolff.
Forms which can be reconstructed as monosyllables with a great deal of certainty
Sequences which are likely monosyllabic roots, but cannot be unequivocally reconstructed
Reconstructed doubled monosyllables phonologically but which cannot be proven to be monosyllabic roots
Sequences which occur as final syllables over a wide area but which cannot be reconstructed as a monosyllabic root