West Malayo Polynesian languages

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Geographical distribution of the subgroups of the western Malayo-Polynesian languages

The West Malayo-Polynesian languages form a subgroup of the Malayo-Polynesian languages ​​(in addition to Central-East-Malayo-Polynesian with its subgroups Central-Malayo-Polynesian and East-Malayo-Polynesian, see Malayo-Polynesian languages ), which in turn is a subgroup represent the Austronesian languages . The 445 languages ​​are spoken by 284 million speakers, mainly in Indonesia , Malaysia , Madagascar and the Philippines . Major national and common languages ​​such as Indonesian , Malay , Javanese and Tagalog are West Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is why this branch is the best researched and most significant of the Malayo-Polynesian and Austronesian languages.