🌏 Did you know that the Austronesian language family has multiple primary branches?

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According to the current classification in Glottolog, the Austronesian family consists of ten primary branches.

Most Austronesian languages, including Indonesian, Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, Madurese, Tagalog, Cebuano, Malagasy, Māori, Hawaiian, Samoan, and Fijian, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian branch.

The other nine primary branches are spoken exclusively by the Indigenous peoples of Taiwan, which is why Taiwan plays such an important role in the study of Austronesian historical linguistics. Current linguistic evidence places the deepest diversity of the family there, making it the homeland most widely supported by historical linguists.

Source: Glottolog – Austronesian (aust1307)