Austronesian languages
Large language family mostly of Southeast Asia and the Pacific
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| February 2 2024 | Carbon dating study published in Nature reveals most rongorongo tablets date to the 19th century, with one securely dated to the mid-15th century, suggesting the script may have been in use before European contact. |
| 2021 | Another classification study of Austronesian languages was performed, further examining the Formosan language branches in Taiwan. |
| 2021 | Sagart further refines his previous linguistic classification, finding additional shared innovations in Austronesian language numeral systems and proposing that Kradai languages share a coordinate branch with Malayo-Polynesian rather than being a sister family to Austronesian. |
| 2018 | Scholars confirmed the recognition of the 1869 'Raŋitoki fragment', an important discovery in understanding rongorongo writing system. |
| 2017 | Martine Robbeets claims Japanese belongs to 'Transeurasian' languages but underwent lexical influence from 'para-Austronesian'. |
| 2017 | Wei et al. conducted research showing that the Austronesian Y-DNA haplogroup O3a2b*-P164(xM134) is widely distributed along the eastern coastal regions of Asia, supporting Sagart's linguistic and genetic connection hypothesis. |
| 2017 | Laurent Sagart concluded that the presence of two types of millets in Taiwanese Austronesian languages suggests pre-Austronesians originated in northeastern China, near the probable Sino-Tibetan homeland. |
| 2014 | Ko et al. conducted genetic research supporting Laurent Sagart's linguistic proposal about the connection between Austronesian and Sino-Tibetan populations, revealing genetic evidence of maternal haplogroup similarities. |
| 2013 | Blust agrees with previous researchers, concluding that the Tsouic language group is likely not a valid linguistic classification. |
| 2012 | Ross presents additional linguistic research supporting the separation of the Tsouic language group from its previous classification. |
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