- of, relating to, or denoting a family of languages spoken in an area extending from Madagascar in the west to the Pacific islands in the east南岛语系的, 澳斯特罗尼西亚语系的（通行于西起马达加斯加东到太平洋诸岛的地区）。亦称 M
ALAYO-P OLYNESIAN.
mass noun
- this family of languages南岛语系, 澳斯特罗尼西亚语系。
Austronesian languages are spoken by about 140 million people, of whom all but 1 million speak a language of the Indonesian group, which includes Indonesian, Javanese, Tagalog, and Malagasy. The other groups are Micronesian, Melanesian, and Polynesian, scattered across the islands of the South Pacific.
词源
from German austronesisch， based on Latin australis 'southern' （see AUSTRAL） + Greek nēsos 'island'.