Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Linguistics

Taiwan's gift to the world

Nature volume 403, pages 709–710 (2000)Cite this article

Study of the giant Austronesian language family tells us a great deal about the history of Pacific peoples and boatbuilding, as well as about Aboriginal Australia.

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The geographical span of Austronesian languages.

References

  1. Bellwood, P., Fox, J. J. & Tryon, D. The Austronesians: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (Australian National University, Canberra, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Blust, R. Symp. Ser. Inst. Linguist. Acad. Sinica 1, 31–94 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bellwood, P. Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago (Academic, North Ryde, Australia, 1985).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Kirch, P. V. The Lapita Peoples (Blackwell, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Ruhlen, M. A Guide to the World's Languages, Vol. 1 (Stanford Univ. Press, 1987).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Dixon, R. M. W. The Rise and Fall of Languages (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997).

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, University of California Medical School, Los Angeles, 90095-1751, California, USA

    Jared M. Diamond

Authors
  1. Jared M. Diamond
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jared M. Diamond.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Diamond, J. Taiwan's gift to the world. Nature 403, 709–710 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35001685

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35001685

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing