Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Southern Oceanic languages

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Geographicdistribution
  
Vanuatu, New Caledonia

Glottolog
  
None

Southern Oceanic languages

Linguistic classification
  
AustronesianMalayo-PolynesianOceanicCentral–EasternSouthern Oceanic

Subdivisions
  
Vanuatu (various branches)New Caledonia

The Southern Oceanic languages are a linkage of Oceanic spoken in Vanuatu and New Caledonia. It was proposed by Lynch, Ross, and Crowley in 2002 and supported by later analysis. They suspect that it is a linkage rather than a straightforward family.

Languages

Lynch (1995) tentatively grouped the languages as follows:

  • Banks–Torres family
  • Northwest Santo family
  • Southwest Santo family
  • Sakao
  • East Santo family
  • Ambae–Maewo family
  • Nuclear Southern Oceanic linkage
  • Central Vanuatu linkage
  • Malekula Coastal
  • Malekula Interior
  • Pentecost
  • Ambrym–Paama
  • Epi–Efate
  • Epl
  • Shepherds–North Efate
  • South Efate – Southern Melanesian linkage
  • South Efate dialect network
  • Southern Melanesian family
  • Southern Vanuatu family
  • New Caledonian family

    • This organization is rather impressionistic. The non-nuclear branches are subsumed under the name Northern Vanuatu, but this is a residual group of languages with no defining features.

    Clark (2009) has a slightly different structure for the northern and central languages:

    North–Central Vanuatu

  • East Santo
  • Malekula Interior
  • Northeast Vanuatu – Banks Islands
  • Central Vanuatu languages
  • East Vanuatu languages
  • Epi languages
  • Malekula Coastal languages
  • West Santo languages

    • The Southern Vanuatu and New Caledonian languages were not addressed.

    References

    Southern Oceanic languages Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


    Similar Topics