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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tonguez" data-source="post: 3014172" data-attributes="member: 1125">Actually prior to the colonial expansion of Europe into the southern hemisphere various dialects of a common Austronesian language were spoken over 1/5 of the Earths surface extending as far west as Malagasy (Madagascar) and eastward across SE Asia and on into the Pacific.  Admittedly the land area here is small and the population low but the fact remains that there was in the southern hemisphere at least something approaching a near-homogenous language groupEven today the languages of Polynesia remain mutually intelligible (albeit split into two major groups) and there are even certain dialects spoken in island Indonesia that can generally be understood by native speakers of a Polynesian language (say Cook Island Maori for instance).I agree that if there is a modern common then it is EnglishThere is also a 'standard' English which was the RP of Southwest Englandhowever I think Microsofts spell checker may be changing written english to the common standard of US English with the way in insist on changing the s to a z in things like specialisation!!!</blockquote>