ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Sino-Austronesian languages

Okay kiddo, let's talk about languages! Have you ever heard someone speak a language that sounds totally different than yours? That's because there are lots of different languages in the world! One of those groups of languages is called Sino-Austronesian languages.

Now, Sino-Austronesian is a really big word, but it just means that these languages come from two different groups of people.

Sino means Chinese, and these languages come from the people who live in China. You might have heard of Chinese before, it's one of the most widely spoken languages in the world!

The other group is called Austronesian. These languages come from people who used to live in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, like Indonesia and the Philippines. Some of the languages you might know from this group are Tagalog and Malay.

Now, even though these languages come from different groups of people, there are some similarities between them. For example, some words in Chinese and Austronesian languages sound the same and have similar meanings. That's because these groups of people lived near each other a long time ago and sometimes traded with each other.

Overall, Sino-Austronesian languages are just a group of languages that come from two different groups of people - Chinese and those from Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands - and they share some similarities. Pretty cool, huh?