ABSTRACT
The present chapter discusses background and practice of language policy in those countries in which a majority of the population has a western Austronesian language as its mother tongue, i.e. in Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines and Madagascar. In addition some notes will be presented with regard to western Austronesian languages which are spoken by a (sizable) minority in neighboring countries (Guam, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam).
