| Temotu | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Solomon Islands |
| Linguistic classification | Austronesian
|
| Proto-language | Proto-Temotu |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | temo1244 |
 Temotu | |
TheTemotu languages, named afterTemotu Province of theSolomon Islands, are a branch ofOceanic languages proposed in Ross & Næss (2007) to unify theReefs – Santa Cruz languages withUtupua andVanikoro, each a group of three related languages.
Utupua and Vanikoro were formerly classified together as theUtupua–Vanikoro languages orEastern Outer Islands languages (seeProto-Temotu language § Descendants).
The Reefs-Santa Cruz languages had previously been consideredPapuan, but Ross & Næss (2007) established that their closest relatives were the Utupua–Vanikoro languages, previously thought to beCentral–Eastern Oceanic.[1] However,Roger Blench (2014)[2] argues that the aberrancy of Utupua and Vanikoro, which he considers to be separate branches that do not group with each other, is due to the fact that they are actually non-Austronesian languages.
Blench (2014) doubts that Utupua and Vanikoro are closely related, and argues that thus they should not be grouped together. Since each of the three Utupua and three Vanikoro languages are highly distinct from each other, Blench doubts that these languages had diversified on the islands ofUtupua andVanikoro, but had rather migrated to the islands from elsewhere. According to Blench, historically this was due to theLapita demographic expansion consisting of both Austronesian and non-Austronesian settlers migrating from the Lapita homeland in theBismarck Archipelago to various islands further to the east.
More recently, Lackey & Boerger (2021) finds no phonological evidence for an Utupua-Vanikoro subgroup, suggesting that they actually consist of two primary branches.[3]
François (2009) notes that the lexicons of all three Vanikoro languages are highly distinct from each other and do not appear to be closely related, although their grammars are all similar.[4]