Glottolog reef1242 | ||
Linguistic classification AustronesianMalayo-PolynesianOceanicTemotuReef Islands – Santa Cruz Subdivisions ÄiwooNendi (Santa Cruz) |
The Reef Islands – Santa Cruz languages (usually shortened to Reefs – Santa Cruz, abbreviated RSC) are a small language family comprising the languages of the Santa Cruz Islands and Reef Islands:
Contents
Background
The debate in Oceanic linguistics dated from the Second International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics in 1978, where two opposing papers were presented. Peter Lincoln argued that the Reefs – Santa Cruz languages were Oceanic, while Stephen Wurm argued that they were Papuan languages.
Classification
These languages were only definitively classified as part of the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian family after a series of papers that refuted the three major arguments for classifying them as either primarily Papuan languages or at least heavily influenced by a Papuan substrate.
Ross and Næss (2007) offer a retrospective conclusion:
How then did it come about that Stephen Wurm thought the RSC [Reefs – Santa Cruz] languages were Papuan? In small measure because the reconstruction of POc had in the 1970s not progressed to where it is today. In larger measure because the typological features he found in the RSC languages had yet to be documented in other Oceanic languages. And because the RSC languages had undergone phonological changes which rendered some cognates unrecognisable and led eventually to the replacement of others.