Southern Oceanic languages

{{short description|Subgroup of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family}}

{{Infobox language family

|name=Southern Oceanic

|region=Vanuatu, New Caledonia

|familycolor=Austronesian

|fam2=Malayo-Polynesian

|fam3=Oceanic

|fam4=Central–Eastern

|protoname=Proto-Southern Oceanic

|child1=North-Central Vanuatu

|child2=South Vanuatu

|child3=New Caledonian

|glotto=none

|map=Oceanic languages.svg

|mapcaption={{legend|#0000FF|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,{{cite book |last=Clark |first=Ross |title=Leo Tuai: A comparative lexical study of North and Central Vanuatu languages |date=2009 |publisher=Pacific Linguistics |location=Canberra |issn=1448-8310 |doi=10.15144/PL-603 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1885/146751}} but this is not accepted by Lynch (2018).{{cite journal |last=Lynch |first=John |author-link=John Lynch (linguist) |date=2018 |title=Final Consonants and the Status of Proto-North-Central Vanuatu |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327110841_Final_Consonants_and_the_Status_of_Proto-North-Central_Vanuatu |journal=Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea |issn=0023-1959 |volume=36}}

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.{{cite book |last=Geraghty |first=Paul |editor1-last=Hickey |editor1-first=Raymond |date=2017 |title=The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics |chapter=Languages of Eastern Melanesia |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=821–851 |doi=10.1017/9781107279872.030|isbn=9781107279872 }}{{rp|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.{{cite web |url=https://glottolog.org |title=Glottolog |version=4.0 |editor1-last=Hammarström |editor1-first=Harald |editor2-last=Forkel |editor2-first=Robert |editor3-last=Haspelmath |editor3-first=Martin |date=2019 |location=Jena |publisher=Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History}}

=Lynch (1995)=

Lynch (1995) tentatively grouped the languages as follows:Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002:112)

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
South Efate dialect network
Southern Melanesian family
Southern Vanuatu family
New Caledonian family

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.Ross, Malcolm; Pawley, Andrew; Osmond, Meredith (eds). [http://hdl.handle.net/1885/106908 The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: The culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society]. Volume 5: [https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/106908/9/RossPawleyOsmond-ProtoOceanicLexicon-Vol5-PeopleMindBody.pdf People: body and mind]. 2016. Asia-Pacific Linguistics (A-PL) 28.{{rp|10}}

Notes and references

=References=

=Bibliography=

{{cite book |last=Clark |first=Ross |title=Leo Tuai: A comparative lexical study of North and Central Vanuatu languages |date=2009 |publisher=Pacific Linguistics |location=Canberra |issn=1448-8310 |doi=10.15144/PL-603 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1885/146751}}
{{Citation

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

| author-link =Alexandre François

| last2 =Franjieh

| first2 =Michael

| last3 =Lacrampe

| first3 =Sébastien

| last4 =Schnell

| first4 =Stefan

| editor-last =François

| editor-first =Alexandre

| editor2-last =Lacrampe

| editor2-first =Sébastien

| editor3-last =Franjieh

| editor3-first =Michael

| editor4-last =Schnell

| editor4-first =Stefan

| date =2015

| title =The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity

| chapter =The exceptional linguistic density of Vanuatu

| contribution-url =https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/Francois-et-al_2015_Languages-of-Vanuatu_Intro-chapter.pdf

| series =Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia

| publisher =Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access

| publication-place =Canberra

| pages = 1–21

| isbn =9781922185235

| url =http://alex.francois.free.fr/AFpub_SLIM-volumes_e.htm#a

| ref = density

}}

Lynch, John, and Terry 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. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.

Category:Central–Eastern Oceanic languages