Lexic.us

Definition of Malayo-Polynesian

1. Noun. The branch of the Austronesian languages spoken from Madagascar to the central Pacific.

2. Adjective. Of or relating to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages.

Definition of Malayo-Polynesian

1. Proper noun. A subgroup of languages of the Austronesian language family, mostly dispersed around the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Malayo-Polynesian

Malaxis Malaxis-unifolia Malaxis ophioglossoides Malay Malay Archipelago Malay Peninsula Malaya Malayalam Malayalee Malayalees

Malayali Malayalis Malayan Malayan tapir Malayans Malayo-Polynesian (current term) Malays Malaysia Malaysia Militant Group Malaysian

Malaysian Mujahidin Group Malaysian Sign Language Malaysian capital Malaysian monetary unit Malaysians Malcolm Malcolm Little Malcolm Lowry Malcolm X Malcolm stock

Literary usage of Malayo-Polynesian

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Researches Into the Physical History of Mankind by James Cowles Prichard (1847)
"The ancient abode of the Malayo-Polynesian tribes, or the primitive home of the ... Elsewhere we find the Malayo-Polynesian race existing only at a distance ..."

2. Australasia by Alfred Russel Wallace, Augustus Henry Keane (1888)
"... Pacific or eastern branch is somehow affected by, or largely made up of, Malayan elements. Hence Malayo-Polynesian cannot continue much longer in use, ..."

3. The Science of Language: Linguistics, Philology, Etymology by Abel Hovelacque (1877)
"The Malayo-Polynesian Idioms. These are sometimes called Oceanic, ... Two facts seem now firmly established : (1) That the Malayo- Polynesian idioms have ..."

4. Ethnology by Augustus Henry Keane (1896)
"... Malay problem— Malay physical type—Malagasy affinities—Malayo-Polynesian linguistic relations—Ethnical relations in the Philippine Islands. ..."

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