Southern Oceanic languages

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Southern Oceanic
Geographic
distribution		Vanuatu, New Caledonia
Linguistic classificationAustronesian
Proto-languageProto-Southern Oceanic
Subdivisions
GlottologNone
  Southern Oceanic

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]

  • Banks–Torres family
  • Northwest Santo
    family
  • Southwest Santo
    family
  • Sakao
  • East Santo
    family
  • Ambae–Maewo
    family
  • Nuclear Southern Oceanic linkage
    • Central Vanuatu linkage
      • Malekula Coastal
      • Malekula Interior
      • Pentecost
      • Ambrym–Paama
    • Epi–Efate
      • Epi
      • Shepherds–North Efate
    • South Efate – Southern Melanesian linkage

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

  1. ^
    ISSN 1448-8310
    .
  2. ISSN 0023-1959
    .
  3. ISBN 9781107279872
    .
  4. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
    .
  5. ^ Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002:112)
  6. ^ 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

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Southern_Oceanic_languages&oldid=1189162030"