Malayo-Polynesian languages

E26283

Austronesian subgroup language family branch

Malayo-Polynesian languages are a major branch of the Austronesian language family spoken across Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and the Pacific, including languages such as Indonesian, Tagalog, Javanese, and Malagasy.

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All labels observed (12)

Label	Occurrences
Malayo-Polynesian languages canonical	499
Malayo-Polynesian	105
Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian	3
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian	2
Bali–Sasak–Sumbawa languages	1
Barito languages	1
Insular Southeast Asian languages	1
Malayo-Polynesian language group	1
Malayo-Sumbawan languages	1
Malayo‑Polynesian languages	1
Sunda–Sulawesi languages	1
Western Malayo-Polynesian languages	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T200633 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Malayo-Polynesian languages
Context triple: [Austronesian languages, hasSubfamily, Malayo-Polynesian languages]

A. Austronesian languages
Austronesian languages are a large and widely dispersed language family spoken across maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the Pacific Islands, and parts of mainland Asia.
B. Philippine–Cordilleran languages
The Philippine–Cordilleran languages are a major subgroup of the Austronesian language family spoken primarily in the northern Philippines, encompassing numerous indigenous languages of the Cordillera region and surrounding areas.
C. Penutian languages
Penutian languages are a proposed family of Native American languages spoken primarily in the western United States, noted for their controversial genetic relationships and inclusion of several distinct regional language groups.
D. Ryukyuan languages
The Ryukyuan languages are a group of closely related but distinct Japonic languages traditionally spoken in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, many of which are now endangered.
E. Japonic languages
The Japonic languages are a small language family that includes Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken primarily in Japan and the Ryukyu Islands of East Asia.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Malayo-Polynesian languages
Target entity description: Malayo-Polynesian languages are a major branch of the Austronesian language family spoken across Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and the Pacific, including languages such as Indonesian, Tagalog, Javanese, and Malagasy.

A. Austronesian languages
Austronesian languages are a large and widely dispersed language family spoken across maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the Pacific Islands, and parts of mainland Asia.
B. Philippine–Cordilleran languages
The Philippine–Cordilleran languages are a major subgroup of the Austronesian language family spoken primarily in the northern Philippines, encompassing numerous indigenous languages of the Cordillera region and surrounding areas.
C. Penutian languages
Penutian languages are a proposed family of Native American languages spoken primarily in the western United States, noted for their controversial genetic relationships and inclusion of several distinct regional language groups.
D. Ryukyuan languages
The Ryukyuan languages are a group of closely related but distinct Japonic languages traditionally spoken in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, many of which are now endangered.
E. Japonic languages
The Japonic languages are a small language family that includes Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken primarily in Japan and the Ryukyu Islands of East Asia.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (83)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	Austronesian subgroup ⓘ language family branch ⓘ
areSpokenBy	Austronesian peoples ⓘ Filipino peoples ⓘ linked to: Filipino Javanese people ⓘ Malagasy people ⓘ Malay peoples ⓘ Melanesian peoples ⓘ Micronesian peoples ⓘ linked to: Micronesians Polynesian peoples ⓘ linked to: Polynesians
geneticRelation	Formosan languages ⓘ
geographicDistribution	from Madagascar in the west to Easter Island in the east ⓘ from Taiwan in the north to New Zealand in the south ⓘ
hasAlternativeName	Extra-Formosan languages ⓘ linked to: Formosan languages Malayo-Polynesian ⓘ linked to: Malayo-Polynesian languages
hasApproximateNumberOfLanguages	over 1000 ⓘ
hasApproximateNumberOfSpeakers	hundreds of millions ⓘ
hasMajorContactLanguage	Arabic ⓘ Dutch ⓘ English ⓘ Portuguese ⓘ linked to: Portuguese language Sanskrit ⓘ Spanish ⓘ
hasSubgroup	Bornean languages ⓘ Celebic languages ⓘ Central Malayo-Polynesian languages ⓘ Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages ⓘ linked to: Central Malayo-Polynesian languages Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages ⓘ Oceanic languages ⓘ Philippine languages ⓘ South Sulawesi languages ⓘ Sunda-Sulawesi languages ⓘ Western Malayo-Polynesian languages ⓘ linked to: Western Malayo-Polynesian (traditional classification)
historicalOrigin	Taiwan (Austronesian homeland hypothesis) ⓘ linked to: Formosan languages
includesLanguage	Balinese language ⓘ Bikol language ⓘ Cebuano language ⓘ Chamorro language ⓘ linked to: Chamorro Fijian language ⓘ Filipino language ⓘ Hawaiian language ⓘ Ilocano language ⓘ Indonesian language ⓘ Javanese language ⓘ linked to: Javanese Madurese language ⓘ linked to: Madurese Malagasy language ⓘ Malay language ⓘ Maori language ⓘ linked to: Māori Palauan language ⓘ linked to: Palauan Samoan language ⓘ Sundanese language ⓘ linked to: Sundanese Tagalog language ⓘ linked to: Tagalog Tahitian language ⓘ Tongan language ⓘ
languageFamily	Austronesian language family ⓘ linked to: Austronesian languages
partOf	Austronesian language family ⓘ linked to: Austronesian languages
spokenIn	Brunei ⓘ linked to: Brunei Darussalam East Timor ⓘ linked to: Timor-Leste Hawaii ⓘ Indonesia ⓘ Madagascar ⓘ Malaysia ⓘ Maritime Southeast Asia ⓘ Melanesia ⓘ Micronesia ⓘ New Zealand ⓘ Oceania ⓘ Pacific Ocean region ⓘ Papua New Guinea ⓘ Philippines ⓘ Polynesia ⓘ Southeast Asia ⓘ Taiwan (offshore islands) ⓘ linked to: Taiwan, Province of China
subclassOf	Austronesian languages ⓘ
typicalMorphology	agglutinative ⓘ
typicalPhonology	small to moderate phoneme inventories ⓘ
typicalWordOrder	SVO ⓘ
writingSystem	Arabic script (Jawi) ⓘ linked to: Jawi script Balinese script (historical) ⓘ linked to: Balinese script Baybayin (historical) ⓘ linked to: Baybayin Javanese script (historical) ⓘ Latin script ⓘ Lontara script (historical) ⓘ linked to: Lontara script

How these facts were elicited