China, US Seek Origin of Pacific, Asian Island Languages

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 04, 2002

China, US Seek Origin of Pacific, Asian Island Languages

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Anthropologists from China and the United States are working at a Neolithic site in east China's Fujian Province aiming to trace the origin of the Austronesian languages spoken across the Pacific Ocean.

Experts from the anthropology department at Harvard University,the University of Hawaii and the Museum of Fujian Province have been working since Nov. 24 at Beiqiu in Dongshan County on China'ssoutheast coast.

Austronesian, or Malayo-Polynesian, is a family of 1,000 to 1,200 languages used by 270 million people living in a wide area stretching from Taiwan to New Zealand and from Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

The languages are believed to derive from the vicinity of Taiwan, the Penghu Islands and the southeast coast of China.

Anthropologists were trying to discover more proof to support the hypothesis on the coast opposite Taiwan after some clear archeological proof had been found in Taiwan, said a spokesman forthe Sino-US research team.

Stone and bone tools, pieces of porcelain and shells as well asbones of animals had been unearthed at the Beiqui site in the pastweek, forming a picture of the lifestyle of people there some 4,000 years ago, the spokesman said.

Anthropologists also showed great interest in the migration of Neolithic people across the Taiwan Strait, he added.

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