Indonesian Languages

Indonesian languages, broadly, the Austronesian languages of island Southeast Asia as a whole, including the languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Taiwan, and the outlying areas of Madagascar and of Palau and the Mariana Islands of western Micronesia. A more restricted core area includes only the languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. The term has been used in the broader sense by Japanese and Chinese linguists concerned with the aboriginal languages of Taiwan, as well as by European scholars such as Wilhelm Schmidt and Otto Dempwolff in the first half of the 20th century. In its narrower sense the term Indonesian language has been used primarily by Dutch scholars. Most scholars have avoided this expression in connection with the Chamic languages of mainland Southeast Asia, despite the close relationship of this group to Malay and some other languages of western Indonesia. Although it remains a convenient label for languages of a certain type and geographic area, the term Indonesian language does not appear to refer to any definable subgroup within the Austronesian family.