The Austronesian language group probably enjoyed the widest physical dispersion of a single language family prior to the European colonial expansion following Columbus. From the island of Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, all the way to tiny, isolated Easter Island (Rapa Nui), and extending into Taiwan, Vietnam, Northern Australia, New Zealand and most of the Melanesian and Polynesian Islands, the languages in this single family show the common ancestry by the many cognates (words in common) present.

Today the single language from this family that is spoken by more than 210 million people is Bahasa Indonesia (meaning "The Language of Indonesia"). It is a modern language, based on the centuries-old lingua franca of the East Indian archipelago that comprises Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and parts of the Philippines. This is the region whose spices were sought by European explorers and trading companies -- the very thing that drove Columbus westward to accidentally find the New World that was inhabited by "Indians". The foundation of modern Indonesian is Malay as spoken on both sides of the Straits of Malacca (Selat Melaka). It was endorsed at the inception of the Indonesian Independence movement in the late 1920's, and became the official language of the Republic of Indonesia upon the Proclamation of Independence on 17 August 1945. Today Indonesia encompasses over 18 thousand islands of which perhaps some 6000 have permanent settlements.

Despite that, within Indonesia there are hundreds of regional languages, most of which are members of this Austronesian Language family. By browsing the list below you can see the striking similarities between some of the regional languages and their language cousins found many thousands of kilometers away in almost every direction that the monsoon winds blow.

Remarkably, right in the middle of this region, there exists another even richer language family, that of the Papuan Languages. These are found scattered among the inland valley tribes that inhabit present day Papua New Guinea and Indonesia's provinces of Irian Jaya, which cover the western half of the same island. The density of the rainforest and the rugged terrain have combined to keep tribes in almost complete isolation from one another, resulting in the world's greatest diversity of languages for such a small area (it is, in all fairness, the second largest island in the world, roughly the size of Turkey or 15% larger than Texas). It has been said that the Papuan languages on this island account for over 20% of the total number of languages still spoken in the world today.

These are the words that compare a very basic vocabulary from representative languages of the Austronesian language family. Some words illustrate a large number of cognates across many or all of the languages represented. Others illustrate that differences exist.

was the lingua franca of the East Indies for over a thousand years. Bahasa Indonesia was officially endorsed as the official language of the emerging independence movement in 1928, and became the official language upon independence from the Dutch in 1945. Its Dutch-based orthography was revised in 1972 when DJ and TJ pairs were dropped (among other improvements). The population of Indonesia is just over 200 million.

island of Java. It is actually a multi-level language where the level spoken is in direct relationship to the social status or politeness required between the individual speakers. In the list below words capitalized are of the higher levels; all CAPS represent the highest level. There are three basic levels, but linguists have identified many more levels comprised of mixtures of vocabulary from adjacent levels according to the particular circumstance. Many words are based on Sanskrit and Kawi, which is an old literary language still used in the famous Wayang shadow puppet plays. This influence goes back to the Hindu and Buddhist period, roughly from the first to tenth centuries of the Christian era. Today approximately 65 million people speak Javanese.

level language, and words listed below with capitalization are from the higher level. Its roots go back to Javanese, Kawi and Sanskrit since many Javanese Hindus fled to Bali when Islam began to take hold in Java.

eastern Java, very close to the port of Surabaya. The language spoken in Madura is related to Javanese, Malay and other languages from coastal groups on nearby islands, such as Makassar and Bugis people of Sulawesi.

arc of islands that includes Sumba, Roti and Timor. There are about 25 languages in this sub-group, including those on Sumba, Roti, Timor, Komodo, and parts of Flores and Sumbawa. Sawu is a unique island in that it has historically been more populated than neighboring islands because its people have learned to avoid seasonal famines through cultivation of the lontar palm, Borassus flabelifer, whose nutricious juice could be consumed when all other food sources were unavailable. About 60000 people live on this island, which was visited by Captain James Cook in 1770 (although the Dutch had already established contact as early as 1648 and had a firm trade treaty when Cook arrived).

from the popular tourist destination area called Tana Toraja ("Torajaland"). The people in this area are famous for their burial sites in cliffside caves. Their language is one of a fertile and relatively isolated inland valley culture which seems to have not needed a word for "island".

of Aceh. There are also some numbers of Acehnese immigrants in Malaysia. Other languages spoken in the province of Aceh include Bahasa Kluet, Bahasa Gayo, Bahasa Alas, and Bahasa Tamiang (a variety of Malay). The indigenous name for Acehnese is 'Basa Ac\u0179h.'

which is now an independent country. Tetun Praca or Tetun Dili has become a the dominant form throughout most of East Timor. It has also become one of only about four languages spoken in the Indonesian part on Timor Island that lies to the west of East Timor. It is difficult to say whether Tetun will have the linguistic strength to serve as an official language of the new government, since its vocabulary is noticeably thin for such needs.