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Subgroup of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family
The Southern Oceanic languages are a
linkage (rather than family) of
Oceanic languages spoken in
Vanuatu and
New Caledonia . It was proposed by
John Lynch in 1995 and supported by later studies. It appears to be a
linkage rather than a language family with a clearly defined internal nested structure.
Classification
Clark (2009) groups the
North Vanuatu and
Central Vanuatu languages together into a
North-Central Vanuatu (NCV) group and also reconstructs Proto-North-Central Vanuatu,
[1] but this is not accepted by
Lynch (2018).
[2]
In addition to the
Temotu languages and the
Northwest Solomonic languages of the western
Solomon Islands , Geraghty (2017) notes that many Southern Oceanic languages are often lexically and typologically aberrant, likely with
Papuan
substrata - particularly the
Espiritu Santo ,
Malakula ,
South Vanuatu , and
New Caledonian languages, and perhaps also some
Central Vanuatu languages of
Ambrym and
Efate .
[3] : 823–826 Nevertheless, languages in the eastern Solomon Islands, including
Guadalcanal ,
Malaita ,
Makira , and a scattering of
North Vanuatu languages including
Mota ,
Raga , and
Tamambo , are much more conservative.
Languages
Following Clark (2009) and
Glottolog 4.0, three major groups can be delineated, which are
North-Central Vanuatu ,
South Vanuatu , and
New Caledonian . The first group is a
linkage , while the others form genetic subgroups.
[1]
[4]
Lynch (1995)
Lynch (1995) tentatively grouped the languages as follows:
[5]
The non-nuclear branches are subsumed under Northern Vanuatu.
Ross, Pawley, & Osmond (2016)
Ross, Pawley, & Osmond (2016) propose the following internal classification for Southern Oceanic.
[6] : 10
See also
Notes and references
References
^
a
b Clark, Ross (2009).
Leo Tuai: A comparative lexical study of North and Central Vanuatu languages . Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
doi :
10.15144/PL-603 .
ISSN
1448-8310 .
^
Lynch, John (2018).
"Final Consonants and the Status of Proto-North-Central Vanuatu" . Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea . 36 .
ISSN
0023-1959 .
^ Geraghty, Paul (2017). "Languages of Eastern Melanesia". In Hickey, Raymond (ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 821–851.
doi :
10.1017/9781107279872.030 .
ISBN
9781107279872 .
^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2019).
"Glottolog" . 4.0. Jena:
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History .
^ Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002:112)
^ Ross, Malcolm; Pawley, Andrew; Osmond, Meredith (eds).
The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: The culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society . Volume 5:
People: body and mind . 2016. Asia-Pacific Linguistics (A-PL) 28.
Bibliography
Clark, Ross (2009).
Leo Tuai: A comparative lexical study of North and Central Vanuatu languages . Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
doi :
10.15144/PL-603 .
ISSN
1448-8310 .
François, Alexandre ; Franjieh, Michael; Lacrampe, Sébastien; Schnell, Stefan (2015),
"The exceptional linguistic density of Vanuatu" (PDF) , in François, Alexandre; Lacrampe, Sébastien; Franjieh, Michael; Schnell, Stefan (eds.),
The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity , Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia, Canberra: Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access, pp. 1–21,
ISBN
9781922185235
Lynch, John , and
Terry Crowley . 2001. Languages of Vanuatu: A New Survey and Bibliography . (Pacific Linguistics, 517.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
Lynch, John ,
Malcolm Ross &
Terry Crowley . 2002. The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.
* indicates proposed status ? indicates classification dispute † indicates
extinct status
* indicates proposed status ? indicates classification dispute † indicates
extinct status