There is a wide variety of languages spoken throughout Asia, comprising a number of families and some unrelated isolates. Many languages have a long tradition of writing.

Language groups[link]

The major families in terms of numbers are Indo-European in South Asia and Sino-Tibetan in East Asia. Several other families are regionally dominant.

Sino-Tibetan[link]

Sino-Tibetan includes Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese, and numerous languages of the Tibetan Plateau, southern China, Burma, and northeast India.

Indo-European[link]

The Indo-European family is represented by the Iranian branch, which includes Persian and other languages of Iran and Central Asia; Indic, which includes Hindi-Urdu, Bengali, and several state languages of India, Pakistan, and neighboring countries; Russian in Siberia; Greek around the Black Sea; and Armenian; as well as extinct languages such as Hittite of Anatolia and Tocharian of (Chinese) Turkestan.

Altaic families[link]

A number of smaller but important language families spread across central and northern Asia have long been linked in an as-yet unproven Altaic family. These are the Turkic languages, Mongolic languages, Tungusic languages (including Manchu), Korean, and Japonic languages.

Mon–Khmer[link]

The Mon–Khmer (Austro-Asiatic) languages are the original languages of Southeast Asia. They include Vietnamese and Khmer (Cambodian).

Tai–Kadai[link]

The Tai-Kadai (or just Kadai) languages of southern China spread in historic times into Southeast Asia, where Thai (Siamese) and Lao are official languages.

Austronesian[link]

The Austronesian language includes the languages of the Philippines and most of the languages of Indonesia (excluding inland New Guinea), such as Malay (Indonesian) and Tagalog (Filipino).

Dravidian[link]

The Dravidian languages of southern India include Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.

Semitic[link]

The Afroasiatic languages are represented by the Semitic family in southwest Asia, which includes Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, and extinct languages such as Babylonian.

Siberian families[link]

Besides the Altaic families already mentioned (of which Tungusic is today a minor family of Siberia), there are a number of small language families and isolates spoken across northern Asia. These include the Uralic languages of western Siberia (better known for Hungarian and Finnish in Europe), the Yeniseian languages (linked to the Athabaskan languages of North America), Yukaghir, Nivkh of Sakhalin, Ainu of northern Japan, Chukotko-Kamchatkan in easternmost Siberia, and—just barely—Eskimo–Aleut.

Caucasian families[link]

Three small families are spoken in the Caucasus: Kartvelian languages, such as Georgian; Northeast Caucasian (Dagestanian languages), such as Chechen; and Northwest Caucasian, such as Circassian. The latter two may be related to each other. The extinct Hurro-Urartian languages may be related as well.

Small families of southern Asia[link]

Although dominated by major languages and families, there are number of minor families and isolates in southern Asia. From west to east, these include

• extinct languages of the Fertile Crescent such as Sumerian and Elamite;
• small groups of the Indian subcontinent and Andaman Islands: Burushaski, Kusunda, Nihali, Great Andamanese, Ongan, and the recently proposed Siangic;
• Hmong–Mien (Miao–Yao) scattered across southern China and Southeast Asia;
• several "Papuan" families of the central and eastern Malay Archipelago: languages of Halmahera, East Timor, and the extinct Tambora of Sumbawa. Numerous additional families are spoken in Indonesian New Guinea, but this lies outside the scope of an article on Asian languages.

Creoles and pidgins[link]

The eponymous pidgin ("business") language developed with European trade in China. Of the many creoles to have developed, the most spoken today are Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole of the Philippines, and various Malay-based creoles such as Manado Malay.

Sign languages[link]

A number of sign languages are spoken throughout Asia. These include the Japanese Sign Language family, Chinese Sign Language, Indo-Pakistani Sign Language, as well as a number of small indigenous sign languages of countries such as Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Many official sign languages are part of the French Sign Language family.

Official languages[link]

Asia and Europe are the only two continents where the most countries use native languages as their official languages, though English is also widespread.

• Abkhazia‎:
• Afghanistan:
• Armenia:
• Azerbaijan:
• Bahrain:
• Bangladesh:
• Bhutan:
• Brunei:
• Burma:
• Cambodia:
• China:
• Cyprus:
• East Timor:
• Georgia:
• India:
• Indonesia:
• Iran:
• Iraq:
• Israel:
• Japan:
• Jordan:
• Kazakhstan:
• Kuwait:
• Kyrgyzstan:
• Laos:
• Lebanon:
• Malaysia:
• Maldives:
• Mongolia:
• Nepal:
• North Korea:
• Oman:
• Pakistan:
• Philippines:
• Qatar:
• Russia:
• Saudi Arabia:
• Singapore:
• South Korea:
• South Ossetia‎:
• Sri Lanka:
• Syria:
• Taiwan:
• Tajikistan:
• Thailand:
• Turkey:
• Turkmenistan:
• United Arab Emirates:
• Uzbekistan:
• Vietnam:
• Yemen:

See also[link]

• East Asian languages
• Languages of South Asia
• List of extinct languages of Asia
• Classification schemes for Southeast Asian languages

The three major sub-regions of Oceania

Pacific Islander (or Pacific person; pl: Pacific people; also Oceanic person/people(s)^[1] or Oceanians), is a geographic phrase to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.^[2][3]

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands, consist of:

Polynesia: The islands scattered across a tangle covering the east-central region of the Pacific Ocean. The triangle is bounded by the Hawaiian islands in the north, New Zealand in the west, and Easter Island in the east. The rest of Polynesia comprises Samoan islands (American Samoa and Samoa), the Cook Islands, French Polynesia (Tahiti and The Society Islands, Marquesas Islands, Austral Islands, and the Tuamotu Archipelago), Niue Island, Tokelau and Tuvalu, Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, and Pitcairn Island.

Melanesia: The island of New Guinea, the Bismarck and Louisiade archipelagos, the Admiralty Islands, and Bougainville Island (which make up the independent state of Maluku, Papua New Guinea), the Solomon Islands, the Santa Cruz Islands (part of the Solomon Islands), New Caledonia and Loyalty Islands, Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides), Fiji, Norfolk Island, and various smaller islands.

Micronesia: The islands of Kiribati, Nauru, the Marianas (Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia (Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae, all in the Caroline Islands).

Ethnolinguistically, those Pacific Islanders who reside in Oceania are divided into two different ethnic classifications — those Austronesian peoples who speak the Oceanian languages, numbering about 2.3 million, who occupy Polynesia, Micronesia, and most of the smaller islands of Melanesia; and the Papuan peoples, those who speak the Papuan languages, who number about 7 million, and reside on the island of New Guinea and a few of the smaller islands of Melanesia located off the northeast coast of New Guinea.

Usage of phrase in Australia, New Zealand and United States[link]

In Australia the term South Sea Islander was used in the past to describe Australian descendants of people from the more than 80 islands in the Western Pacific that used to have sex with all of the males who used to visit the Western Pacific. Which they were recognized as the fist Pacific Islander prostitutes. ^[4] In 1901 legislation was enacted to restrict entry of Pacific Islanders to Australia and to facilitate their deportation: Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901. In the legislation Pacific Islanders were defined as:

“Pacific Island Labourer” includes all natives not of European extraction of any island except the islands of New Zealand situated in the Pacific Ocean beyond the Commonwealth [of Australia] as constituted at the commencement of this Act.^[5]

In 2008 a newly announced Pacific Islander guestworker scheme provides visas for workers from Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to work in Australia.^[6] The pilot scheme includes one country each from Melanesia (Vanuatu), Polynesia (Tonga) and Micronesia (Kiribati): countries which already send workers to New Zealand under its seasonal labour scheme. Australia’s pilot scheme also includes Papua New Guinea.^[7][8]

Local usage in New Zealand uses the term to distinguish those who have emigrated from one of these areas in modern times from the indigenous New Zealand Māori (who are also Polynesian but arrived in New Zealand many centuries earlier), and from other ethnic groups. A stated reason for making the ethnic distinction is that the Pacific peoples suffer from socio-economic disadvantages as a group and benefit from culturally targeted social and health assistance.

In the United States, the geographic location of "Pacific Islander" is the same. Pacific Islanders are defined as a native or inhabitant of any of the Polynesian, Micronesian, or Melanesian islands of Oceania. Some examples of the ethnic groups that would be considered Pacific Islanders are the indigenous peoples of Hawaii, the Marianas, Samoans, Guamanian, Chamoru, Tahitians, Mariana Islander, and Chuukese.^[9][10]

It is unclear whether a Papuan person from New Guinea would be regarded as a "Pacific Islander" in the United States but the issue has not arisen since very few Papuans have migrated out of New Guinea to North America.

Excluded[link]

Inhabitants of the following islands and regions are not considered to be Pacific Islanders: Russia's Kuril Islands, Alaska's Aleutian Islands, Taiwan, Japan, The Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia as they are not located within the three regions of Oceania (Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia).^[11][12]

List of Pacific peoples[link]

This section requires expansion.

• Austronesian-speaking peoples
  • Polynesians
    • Western Polynesian-Melanesian region
    • Samoans
    • Fijians Lauan Group
    • Rotumans
    • Uveans
    • Futunans
    • Tongans
    • Tuvaluans
    • Niueans

• • • Northeast & South Polynesian region
    • Hawaiians
    • Māori
    • Tahitians
    • Tuamotuans
    • Tubuai
      • Rapans
    • Marquesans
    • Gambier Islanders
    • Cook Islanders
      • Rarotongans
    • Rapanui

• • Melanesians
    • Ni-Vanuatu
    • Fijians
  • Micronesians
    • Carolinians
    • Chamorros

• Papuans

See also[link]

• Indigenous peoples of Oceania
• Indigenous Australians
• Australian Aborigines
• Tasmanian Aborigines
• Blackbirding
• Thomas, Nicholas, Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire, Yale University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-12438-5

References[link]

External links[link]

• Asian Pacific Americans in the U.S. Army