Brian Loo Soon Hua - Can Indonesian/Malay and Polynesian Speakers Understand Each Other?

Full title: Can Speakers of Indonesian/Malay and Speakers of Polynesian Languages Understand Each Other?

Bahasa Indonesia and Polynesian languages like Ka ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i and Te Reo Māori are distant relatives spoken in different parts of the vast maritime territory occupied by the Austronesian language family, one of the world’s largest language families. Many of these languages are spoken in isolated areas extremely distant from their genetic relatives and are therefore not in direct contact. For instance, the distance between Sumatra and New Zealand is greater than the distance between Ireland and Western China. If we take Malagasy, spoken on Madagascar off the coast of East Africa into account, the Austronesian languages are (at least in pre-Columbian times) the most widely-dispersed language family on Earth. The question is: Can Indonesians understand speakers of Polynesian languages such as Hawaiian and Maori?

During this talk, Brian will explain a few of the complex sound changes and semantic shifts that hinder mutual intelligibility between some of the major languages in this remarkable language family. He will analyse some vocabulary as well as attempt to show that languages like Indonesian and Hawaiian have a lot more in common that we think. The results might surprise you!

Brian is the resident "language guru" at uTalk and is also a moderator with The Social Element. In his spare time he likes writing and hiking as well as cooking traditional Malaysian food, the spicier the better.

Filming by Brian Loo Soon Hua

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Intro & outro graphics by: Simos Batzakis
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