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Glite Dictionary
🌏 From Austronesia 🗣️ A language group 🧑 A person from Austronesia
Austronesian

Austronesian

9.6
A person who belongs to the island peoples of Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and the Pacific
  • noun
  • /ˌɔːstrəˈniːʒən/
translation icon : austronesio
  • As an Austronesian, she takes pride in her ancestors' seafaring traditions and their connection to the ocean.

Examples

  • An Austronesian is someone from the islands of the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii and New Zealand.

  • The Austronesian people have a rich cultural heritage that spans many islands in the Pacific.

  • Began with the Chams, the charms are a part of the far-flung Austronesian people inhabiting central and southern Vietnam for millennia.

Compounds

Austronesian language
  • Specialized
8.1

A language spoken on islands in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and Madagascar

Surface Forms

Austronesian singular
Austronesians plural

Morphology

Austronesian = Austronesia (opaque) = Austronesia + an

Formed by adding the adjectival suffix '-an' to the proper name 'Austronesia'; the morphology is regular but the base and combining forms are unfamiliar to average learners, so the meaning is not easily derived.

Etymology

Austronesian as a noun names a person from those island groups and comes from Austro- 'south' and -nesian 'island'. So an Austronesian is literally someone from the 'southern islands', which explains why the word means an inhabitant of Austronesia.