Boondocks Boondocks The boondocks is an American expression that stems from the Tagalog word "bundók" ("mountain"). It originally referred to a remote rural area, but now it is often applied to an out-of-the-way city or town considered backward and unsophisticated. It can also designate a 'mountain'. The expression was introduced to English by U.S. military personnel fighting in the Philippine–American War (1899-1902). It derives from the Tagalog word ""bundók"", which means "mountain". According to military historian Paul A. Kramer, the term originally had "connotations of bewilderment and confusion", due to the guerrilla warfare in which the soldiers were engaged. In the
Proto-Austronesian language was originally spoken in Taiwan or possibly South China. Blust also observed the following mergers and sound changes between Proto-Austronesian and Proto-Malayo-Polynesian. However, according to Wolff (2010:241), Proto-Malayo-Polynesian's development from Proto-Austronesian only included the following three sound changes. Proto-Oceanic merged even more phonemes. This is why modern-day Polynesian languages have some of the most restricted consonant inventories in the world. Unusual sound changes that occurred within the Austronesian language family are: Proto-Austronesian is a verb-initial language (including VSO and VOS word orders), as most Formosan languages, all Philippine languages, some Bornean languages, all Austronesian dialects of Madagascar, and all Polynesian