Template talk:etyl:fox

The overwhelming scholarly consensus is that Malayo-Polynesian originated from within the Formosan languages, so that some of the main branches of the Formosan languages are no more closely-related to the other main branches than they are to non-Formosan Austronesian languages. Chuck Entz (talk) 23:09, 16 November 2012 (UTC)
 * So you mean that the Formosan languages and the Austronesian languages are really the same thing? In that case, delete. 01:00, 17 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Not quite. He means that "Formosan" is a paraphyletic grouping, consisting of Austronesian minus Malayo-Polynesian; sort of like if we had a "Mainland Scandinavian" branch that consisted of the North Germanic languages minus Icelandic. (Though it's true that a few scholars have recently sought to address this supposed problem by re-defining "Formosan" as a synonym for "Austronesian".) —Ruakh TALK 21:29, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * delete if possible. No valid branch in linguistics -- Liliana • 09:38, 17 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Quite possible. It was used in only a few places, so it was easy to orphan. All of the Formosan language templates now have family subtemplates reflecting the status of the branches as basal to Austronesian (If memory serves, Atayalic is the only Formosan branch with its own template). There are a couple of instances that can be taken care of once the decision to delete is formal. Chuck Entz (talk) 19:05, 17 November 2012 (UTC)