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Group of related Oceanic languages in northern Vanuatu
The Torres–Banks languages form a
linkage of
Southern Oceanic languages spoken in the
Torres Islands and
Banks Islands of northern
Vanuatu .
Languages
François (2011) recognizes 17 languages spoken by 9,400 people in 50 villages, including 16 living (3 of which are moribund) and one extinct language.
[1]
The 17 languages, ranked from northwest to southeast, are:
[1] : 181
Comparative studies
A. François has published several studies comparing various features of the Torres–Banks languages:
François (2005) : Inventories of vowel systems, and their historical development;
François (2007) : Systems of noun articles, and their historical development;
François (2009) : How several languages grammaticalized a set of light personal pronouns into markers for “aorist” aspect;
François (2011) : How Torres–Banks languages tend to show structural isomorphism, yet lexical diversity;
François (2013) : Etymological reconstruction of spiritual terms in Torres–Banks languages;
François (2015) : Systems of geocentric space directionals, and their historical development;
François (2016) : Historical morphology of personal pronouns.
François (2012) is a
sociolinguistic study of the area.
Genealogical structure of the Torres–Banks linkage
The internal structure of the Torres–Banks linkage was assessed based on the
Comparative method , and presented in the framework of
historical glottometry (
François 2014 ,
2017 ;
Kalyan & François 2018 ).
Kalyan & François (2018: 81) identified the following best-supported subgroups (in decreasing order of genealogical closeness):
Mwotlap – Volow
Hiw – Lo-Toga
Vurës – Mwesen
Lemerig – Vera'a
Koro – Olrat – Lakon
Dorig – Koro – Olrat – Lakon
Olrat – Lakon
Lehali – Löyöp – Mwotlap – Volow
15 Banks languages together (Lehali – Löyöp – Mwotlap – Volow – Lemerig – Vera'a – Vurës – Mwesen – Mota – Nume – Dorig – Koro – Olrat – Lakon – Mwerlap)
It is possible that the strict common ancestor of any two members of the Torres–Banks linkage is
Proto-Oceanic itself.
[1] : 188 Evidence of this is found in the preservation of final consonants in
Lakon (via a now-lost
paragogic vowel), consonants which were lost in most other languages.
[2]
[1] : 200
Proto-language
The
common ancestor of all Torres-Banks languages is called
Proto-Torres–Banks , viewed here as a mutually-intelligible chain of dialects within the Torres and Banks islands.
[1] : 190
Notes
References
Codrington, Robert Henry (1885). The Melanesian Languages . Oxford: Clarendon Press (
full text from the Internet Archive ).
François, Alexandre (2005),
"Unraveling the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF) , Oceanic Linguistics , 44 (2): 443–504,
doi :
10.1353/ol.2005.0034
—— (2007),
"Noun articles in Torres and Banks languages: Conservation and innovation" (PDF) , in Siegel, Jeff; Lynch, John; Eades, Diana (eds.), Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley , Creole Language Library 30, Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 313–326
—— (2009),
"Verbal aspect and personal pronouns: The history of aorist markers in north Vanuatu" (PDF) , in Pawley, Andrew; Adelaar, Alexander (eds.), Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: A festschrift for Bob Blust , vol. 601, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, pp. 179–195
—— (2011),
"Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence" (PDF) , Journal of Historical Linguistics , 1 (2): 175–246,
doi :
10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra ,
hdl :
1885/29283 .
—— (2012),
"The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF) , International Journal of the Sociology of Language , 214 (214): 85–110,
doi :
10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022
—— (2013),
"Shadows of bygone lives: The histories of spiritual words in northern Vanuatu" (PDF) , in Mailhammer, Robert (ed.), Lexical and structural etymology: Beyond word histories , Studies in Language Change, vol. 11, Berlin: DeGruyter Mouton, pp. 185–244,
ISBN
978-1-61451-058-1
—— (2014),
"Trees, Waves and Linkages: Models of Language Diversification" , in Bowern, Claire; Evans, Bethwyn (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics , London: Routledge, pp. 161–189,
ISBN
978-0-41552-789-7
—— (2015).
"The ins and outs of up and down : Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages" (PDF) . In Alexandre François; Sébastien Lacrampe; Michael Franjieh; Stefan Schnell (eds.).
The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity . Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. pp. 137–195.
ISBN
978-1-922185-23-5 .
—— (2016),
"The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu" (PDF) , in Pozdniakov, Konstantin (ed.), Comparatisme et reconstruction : tendances actuelles , Faits de Langues , vol. 47, Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 25–60
—— (2017).
"Méthode comparative et chaînages linguistiques: Pour un modèle diffusionniste en généalogie des langues" (PDF) . In Jean-Léo Léonard (ed.). Diffusion : implantation, affinités, convergence . Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris. Louvain: Peeters. pp. 43–82.
Kalyan, Siva; François, Alexandre (2018),
"Freeing the Comparative Method from the tree model: A framework for Historical Glottometry" (PDF) , in Kikusawa, Ritsuko; Reid, Laurie (eds.), Let's talk about trees: Tackling Problems in Representing Phylogenic Relationships among Languages , Senri Ethnological Studies, 98, Ōsaka: National Museum of Ethnology, pp. 59–89
Ray, Sidney Herbert (1926).
A Comparative Study of the Melanesian Island Languages . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. xvi+598.
ISBN
9781107682023 .
External links
* indicates proposed status ? indicates classification dispute † indicates
extinct status
* indicates proposed status ? indicates classification dispute † indicates
extinct status