The Oxford Guide to the Malayo-Polynesian Languages of Southeast Asia

Abstract

The book presents the most wide-ranging treatment of the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Southeast Asia and their outliers, a group of more than 800 languages belonging to the wider Austronesian family. It brings together leading scholars and junior researchers to offer a comprehensive account of the historical relations, typological diversity, and varied sociolinguistic issues that characterize the languages. It also deals with historical linguistics, including discussion of human genetics, archaeology, and cultural history. The book explores language contact between Malayo-Polynesian and unrelated languages and provides detailed overviews of the different groupings of Malayo-Polynesian languages. It offers in-depth studies of important typological features across the whole linguistic area.