Proto-Austronesian language

Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify c. 4000 BCE – c. 3500 BCE in Taiwan.

Lower-level reconstructions have also been made, and include Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, Proto-Oceanic, and Proto-Polynesian. In the last three decades, linguists Malcolm Ross and Andrew Pawley have built a large lexicon for Proto-Oceanic. Other comparative lexicons include the Micronesian comparative dictionary (by Bender et al.), and the Polynesian lexicon or Pollex (by Biggs et al.).