Subgroup of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family
TheSouthern Oceanic languages are alinkage (rather than family) ofOceanic languages spoken inVanuatu andNew Caledonia . It was proposed byJohn Lynch in 1995 and supported by later studies. It appears to be alinkage rather than a language family with a clearly defined internal nested structure.
Clark (2009) groups theNorth Vanuatu andCentral Vanuatu languages together into aNorth-Central Vanuatu (NCV) group and also reconstructs Proto-North-Central Vanuatu,[ 1] Lynch (2018).[ 2]
In addition to theTemotu languages and theNorthwest Solomonic languages of the westernSolomon Islands , Geraghty (2017) notes that many Southern Oceanic languages are often lexically and typologically aberrant, likely withPapuan substrata - particularly theEspiritu Santo ,Malakula ,South Vanuatu , andNew Caledonian languages, and perhaps also someCentral Vanuatu languages ofAmbrym andEfate .[ 3] : 823–826 Guadalcanal ,Malaita ,Makira , and a scattering ofNorth Vanuatu languages includingMota ,Raga , andTamambo , are much more conservative.
Following Clark (2009) andGlottolog North-Central Vanuatu ,South Vanuatu , andNew Caledonian . The first group is alinkage , while the others form genetic subgroups.[ 1] [ 4]
Lynch (1995) tentatively grouped the languages as follows:[ 5]
The non-nuclear branches are subsumed under Northern Vanuatu.
[ edit ] Ross, Pawley, & Osmond (2016) propose the following internal classification for Southern Oceanic.[ 6] : 10
Notes and references [ edit ] ^a b Clark, Ross (2009).Leo Tuai: A comparative lexical study of North and Central Vanuatu languages 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 People: body and mind . 2016. Asia-Pacific Linguistics (A-PL) 28. Clark, Ross (2009).Leo Tuai: A comparative lexical study of North and Central Vanuatu languages doi :10.15144/PL-603 .ISSN 1448-8310 . François, Alexandre ; Franjieh, Michael; Lacrampe, Sébastien; Schnell, Stefan (2015),"The exceptional linguistic density of Vanuatu" , in François, Alexandre; Lacrampe, Sébastien; Franjieh, Michael; Schnell, Stefan (eds.),The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity 1– 21,ISBN 9781922185235 the original (PDF) on 25 August 2015Lynch, John , andTerry 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 .
* indicates proposed status ? indicates classification dispute † indicatesextinct status
