The Oceanic languages make up one of the largest subgroups of the Austronesian language family, the second biggest language family in the world. These 600+ language varieties span the entire Pacific Ocean – from Hawai'i to New Zealand, Tobi (Palau) to Rapa Nui. Due to the high number of languages spoken by widely varying speech communities over such a vast area, the Oceanic subgroup raises critical questions about linguistic diversity, language evolution, language contact, and language development.
The Comparative Oceanic Linguistics - CoOL - project responds to these questions by combining methods of classic comparative historical linguistics, computational linguistics, and sociolinguistics to reconstruct the Oceanic past and to explore how high mobility, overlapping migrations, and complex interactions have impacted language histories.
Ongoing work includes revising the classifications of Southern Oceanic and Polynesian languages, investigating the magnitude and causes of variation in linguistic diversification rates, modelling the evolution of linguistic disparity, identifying linguistic signals of early contact between speakers of Oceanic and non-Oceanic languages, discovering the source(s) and timing of the Polynesian Outlier westward migrations, and reconstructing linkages and dialect networks in the break-up of Proto Oceanic.
Group members
Senior Scientist
Senior Associate Scientists
- Simon Greenhill
- Mary Walworth
Collaborators
- Bethwyn Evans
- Aymeric Hermann
- Malcolm Ross
- Jacques Vernaudon
Publications
2025
Rangelov, T., Ridge, E., & Takau, L.(2025). Introduction to the three Special Issues on Vanuatu languages. Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand,68(2), 1-6. Retrieved from https://nzlingsoc.org/journal_article/introduction-to-the-three-special-issues-on-vanuatu-languages/. | |
Rangelov, T., Ridge, E., & Takau, L.(2025). Introduction: Vanuatu languages in action. Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand,68(3), 1-4. Retrieved from https://nzlingsoc.org/journal_article/introduction-vanuatu-languages-in-action/. | |
Rangelov, T., Ridge, E., & Takau, L.(2025). Linguistics in Vanuatu 45 years after independence. Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand,68(2), 31-78. Retrieved from https://nzlingsoc.org/journal_article/linguistics-in-vanuatu-45-years-after-independence/. | |
Ridge, E., Rangelov, T., & Takau, L.(2025). Introduction: Vanuatu language structures. Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand,68(4), 1-3. Retrieved from https://nzlingsoc.org/journal_article/introduction-vanuatu-language-structures/. | |
Ridge, E., Rangelov, T., & Takau, L.(2025). Introduction: Vanuatu languages in context. Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand,68(2), 27-30. Retrieved from https://nzlingsoc.org/journal_article/introduction-vanuatu-languages-in-context/. | |
Takau, L., Rangelov, T., & Ridge, E.(2025). Introdaksen long trifala Spesel Isiu wetem ol samari long Bislama. Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand,68(2), 7-26. Retrieved from https://nzlingsoc.org/journal_article/introdaksen-long-trifala-spesel-isiu-wetem-ol-samari-long-bislama-introduction-to-the-three-special-issues-and-summaries-in-bislama/. | |
Taman, A., Taman, S., & Rangelov, T.(2025). Language ecosystems in Western Santo. Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand,68(2), 186-245. Retrieved from https://nzlingsoc.org/journal_article/language-ecosystems-in-western-santo/. | |
Vanuatu language structures [Special Issue].(2025). Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand,68(4). Retrieved from https://nzlingsoc.org/journal/current-issue/?journal_volumes=321. | |
Vanuatu languages in action [Special Issue].(2025). Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand,68(3). Retrieved from https://nzlingsoc.org/journal/current-issue/?journal_volumes=320rnal_volumes=321. | |
Vanuatu languages in context [Special Issue].(2025). Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand,68(2). Retrieved from https://nzlingsoc.org/journal/current-issue/?journal_volumes=319. | |
Shcherbakova, O., Gast, V., Greenhill, S. J., Blasi, D., Gray, R. D., & Skirgård, H.(2025). Different models, different assumptions, different findings: commentary on “Replication and methodological robustness in quantitative typology” by Becker and Guzmán Naranjo. Linguistic Typology,29(3), 587-590. | |
Hrnčíř, V., Chira, A.-M., & Gray, R. D.(2025). Did alcohol facilitate the evolution of complex societies? Humanities and Social Sciences Communications,12: 1091. | |
Barlow, R.(2025). Loss of colexification of 'hand' and 'five' in Austronesian languages. Oceanic Linguistics,64(1), 145-200. | |
Graff, A., Chousou-Polydouri, N., Inman, D., Skirgård, H., Lischka, M., Zakharko, T., Barbieri, C., & Bickel, B.(2025). Curating global datasets of structural linguistic features for independence. Scientific Data,12: 106. | |
Boissonneault, M., Tallman, A., Gast, V., & Greenhill, S. J.(2025). Projected speaker numbers and dormancy risks of Canada’s indigenous languages. Royal Society Open Science,12(2): 241091. | |
Rangelov, T.(2025).A new survey in western Santo (Vanuatu). Talk presented at 13th conference on Oceanic Linguistics (COOL). Canberra. 2025-06-23 - 2025-06-27. | |
Rangelov, T.(2025).Deontic modality marking in some Vanuatu languages was reorganised by colonisation-induced language ecosystem disturbances. Talk presented at 17th Austronesian and Papuan Languages and Linguistics Conference (APLL17). Cologne. 2025-07-21 - 2025-07-23. |
Open Access2024
Clement, A. M., Cloutier, R., Lee, M. S. Y., King, B., Vanhaesebroucke, O., Bradshaw, C. J. A., Dutel, H., Trinajstic, K., & Long, J. A.(2024). A Late Devonian coelacanth reconfigures actinistian phylogeny, disparity, and evolutionary dynamics. Nature Communications,15(1): 7529. | |
Barlow, R.(2024). Numerals. InThe international encyclopedia of language and linguistics (3rd Edition). Elsevier. | |
Shcherbakova, O., Michaelis, S. M., Haynie, H. J., Passmore, S., Gast, V., Gray, R. D., Greenhill, S. J., Blasi, D. E., & Skirgård, H.(2024). As sociedades de estranhos não falam línguas menos complexas. Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem - ReVEL,22(42), 60-99. Retrieved from http://www.revel.inf.br/files/8342541b5b3e03a377fde49be41097f7.pdf. | |
Dunn, R. R., Kirby, k, K. R., Bowern, C., Ember, C. R., Gray, R. D., McCarter, J., Kavanagh, P. H., Trautwein, M., Nichols, L. M., Gavin, M. C., & Botero, C.(2024). Climate, climate change and the global diversity of human houses. Evolutionary Human Sciences,6: e24, pp. 1-55. | |
King, B., Greenhill, S. J., Reid, L. A., Ross, M., Walworth, M., & Gray, R. D.(2024). Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of Philippine languages supports a rapid migration of Malayo-Polynesian languages. Scientific Reports,14(1): 14967. | |
Rangelov, T.(2024).Are phonetic rara marginal phonemes?. Talk presented at 56th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea. Helsinki. 2024-08-21 - 2024-08-24. | |
Rangelov, T.(2024).The NDR sound in Austronesian languages. Talk presented at 16th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. Manila, Philippines. Manila. 2024-06-20 - 2024-06-24. | |
Skirgård, H.(2024). Disentangling ancestral state reconstruction in historical linguistics: Comparing classic approaches and new methods using Oceanic grammar. Diachronica,41(1), 46-98. | |
Veselinova, L., & Rangelov, T.(2024).Phasal polarity expressions: A cross-linguistic and intragenealogical study. Talk presented at 15th International Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT15). Singapure. 2024-12-04 - 2024-12-06. |
2023
Barlow, R., & Killian, D.(2023). Tomoip phonetics and phonology. Te Reo,66(1), 60-96. | |
Rangelov, T.(2023). The acoustic and articulatory properties of the prenasalised coronal trill in two Oceanic languages. In R. Skarnitzl, & J. Volín ( | |
Shcherbakova, O., Michaelis, S. M., Haynie, H. J., Passmore, S., Gast, V., Gray, R. D., Greenhill, S. J., Blasi, D. E., & Skirgård, H.(2023). Societies of strangers do not speak less complex languages. Science Advances,9(33): eadf7704. | |
Heggarty, P., Anderson, C., Scarborough, M., King, B., Bouckaert, R., Jocz, L., Kümmel, M. J., Jügel, T., Irslinger, B., Pooth, R., Liljegren, H., Strand, R. F., Haig, G., Macák, M., Kim, R. I., Anonby, E., Pronk, T., Belyaev, O., Dewey-Findell, T. K., Boutilier, M., Freiberg, C., Tegethoff, R., Serangeli, M., Liosis, N., Stroński, K., Schulte, K., Gupta, G. K., Haak, W., Krause, J., Atkinson, Q. D., Greenhill, S. J., Kühnert, D., & Gray, R. D.(2023). Language trees with sampled ancestors support a hybrid model for the origin of Indo-European languages. Science,381(6656): eabg0818. | |
Auderset, S., Greenhill, S. J., DiCanio, C. T., & Campbell, E. W.(2023). Subgrouping in a ‘dialect continuum’: A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of the Mixtecan language family. Journal of Language Evolution,8(1): lzad004, pp. 33 -63. | |
Passmore, S., Barth, W., Greenhill, S. J., Quinn, K., Sheard, C., Argyriou, P., Birchall, J., Bowern, C., Calladine, J., Deb, A., Diederen, A., Metsäranta, N. P., Araujo, L. H., Schembri, R., Hickey-Hall, J., Honkola, T., Mitchell, A., Poole, L., Rácz, P. M., Roberts, S. G., Ross, R. M., Thomas-Colquhoun, E., Evans, N., & Jordan, F. M.(2023). Kinbank: A global database of kinship terminology. PLoS One,18(5): e0283218. | |
Rangelov, T., Walworth, M., & Barbour, J.(2023). A multifaceted approach to understanding unexpected sound change: The bilabial trills of Vanuatu’s Malekula Island. Diachronica,40(3), 384-432. | |
Zariquiey, R., Vera, J., Greenhill, S. J., Valenzuela, P., Gray, R. D., & List, J.-M.(2023). Untangling the evolution of body-part terminology in Pano: Conservative versus innovative traits in body-part lexicalization. Interface Focus,13(1): 20220053. | |
Barlow, R.(2023).A grammar of Ulwa (Papua New Guinea). Berlin: Language Science Press. | |
Barlow, R.(2023). Papuan-Austronesian contact and the spread of numeral systems in Melanesia. Diachronica,40(3), 287-340. | |
Choo, B., Holland, T., Clement, A. M., King, B., Challands, T., Young, G., & Long, J. A.(2023). A new stem-tetrapod fish from the Middle–Late Devonian of central Australia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology,43(3): e2285000. | |
King, B., Rangelov, T., & Walworth, M.(2023).Phylogenetic ancestral state reconstruction of bilabial trills in the languages of Malekula Island (Vanuatu), and the historical evolution of rare sound changes. Talk presented at Sixth Edinburgh Symposium on Historical Phonology. Edinburgh. 2023-12-04 - 2023-12-04. | |
Rangelov, T.(2013).Higher numerals in the languages of Espiritu Santo. Talk presented at Vanuatu Languages Conference. Port Vila, Vanuatu. 2013-07-10 - 2023-07-13. | |
Rangelov, T.(2023).Phonetic rarities and their role in speaker identity changes, language divergence and convergence: Evidence from Vanuatu. Talk presented at 56th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea. Athens. 2023-08-29 - 2023-09-01. | |
Sheehan, O., Watts, J., Gray, R. D., Bulbulia, J., Claessens, S., Ringen, E. J., & Atkinson, Q. D.(2023). Coevolution of religious and political authority in Austronesian societies. Nature Human Behaviour,7, 38-45. |
2013
Martinović, V., & Rangelov, T.(2013).Automatic detection of phonological adjustments in Bislama’s lexicon of English origin. Talk presented at Vanuatu Languages Conference. Port Vila, Vanuatu. 2013-07-10 - 2023-07-13. |
2021
Walworth, M., Dewar, A., Ennever, T., Takau, L., & Rodriguez, I. (2021). Multilingualism in Vanuatu: Four case studies. International Journal of Bilingualism, 25(4), 1120–1141.
DOI
2020
Hermann, Aymeric & Walworth, Mary. (2020). Approche interdisciplinaire des échanges interculturels et de l’intégration des communautés polynésiennes dans le centre du Vanuatu. Journal de la Société des océanistes. 239-262.
DOI
Contact
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
Departmental Administrator:
Iren Hartmann
phone:+49 (0)341 3550 - 259
e-mail: dlce_info@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
Video and Language recording
Welcome to Vanuatu Voices!
Vanuatu Voices presents phonetically-transcribed primary recordings, from numerous villages throughout different islands, to both document and exhibit the extensive variation and unparalleled diversity of the Vanuatu languages.