Torres–Banks languages

François (2011) recognizes 17 languages spoken by 9,400 people in 50 villages, including 16 living (3 of which are moribund) and one extinct language.François (2011).

The 17 languages, ranked from northwest to southeast, are:{{rp|181}}

:

A. François has published several studies comparing various features of the Torres–Banks languages:

• François (2005): Inventories of vowel systems, and their historical development;
• François (2007): Systems of noun articles, and their historical development;
• François (2009): How several languages grammaticalized a set of light personal pronouns into markers for “aorist” aspect;
• François (2011): How Torres–Banks languages tend to show structural isomorphism, yet lexical diversity;
• François (2013): Etymological reconstruction of spiritual terms in Torres–Banks languages;
• François (2015): Systems of geocentric space directionals, and their historical development;
• François (2016): Historical morphology of personal pronouns.

François (2012) is a sociolinguistic study of the area.

The internal structure of the Torres–Banks linkage was assessed based on the Comparative method, and presented in the framework of historical glottometry (François 2014, 2017; Kalyan & François 2018).

Kalyan & François (2018: 81) identified the following best-supported subgroups (in decreasing order of genealogical closeness):

• Mwotlap – Volow
• Hiw – Lo-Toga
• Vurës – Mwesen
• Lemerig – Vera'a
• Koro – Olrat – Lakon
• Dorig – Koro – Olrat – Lakon
• Olrat – Lakon
• Lehali – Löyöp – Mwotlap – Volow
• 15 Banks languages together (Lehali – Löyöp – Mwotlap – Volow – Lemerig – Vera'a – Vurës – Mwesen – Mota – Nume – Dorig – Koro – Olrat – Lakon – Mwerlap)

It is possible that the strict common ancestor of any two members of the Torres–Banks linkage is Proto-Oceanic itself.{{rp|188}} Evidence of this is found in the irregular preservation of final consonants in Lakon (via a now-lost paragogic vowel) in some words, consonants which were lost in most other languages.François (2005: 479-481).François (2011).{{rp|200}}

{{main|Proto-Torres–Banks language}}

The common ancestor of all Torres-Banks languages is called Proto-Torres–Banks, viewed here as a mutually-intelligible chain of dialects within the Torres and Banks islands.{{rp|190}}

{{reflist}}

• Codrington, Robert Henry (1885). The Melanesian Languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press ([https://archive.org/details/melanesianlangua00codruoft full text from the Internet Archive]).
• {{citation

|doi=10.1353/ol.2005.0034

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|author-link = Alexandre François (linguist)

|year=2005

|title=Unraveling the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages

|journal=Oceanic Linguistics

|volume=44

|issue=2

|pages=443–504

|url=https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_VowelsNorthernVanuatu_OL44-2.pdf

|ref=vowels

}}

• {{Citation

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

| author-mask= 2

| contribution = Noun articles in Torres and Banks languages: Conservation and innovation

| editor1-last = Siegel

| editor1-first = Jeff

| editor2-last = Lynch

| editor2-first = John

| editor3-last = Eades

| editor3-first = Diana

| title = Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley

| volume =

| pages = 313–326

| publisher = Benjamins

| place = Amsterdam

| year = 2007

| series = Creole Language Library 30

| isbn =

| contribution-url= https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2007_Articles-Vanuatu_Crowley-volume.pdf

| ref = articles

}}

• {{Citation

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

| author-mask= 2

| contribution = Verbal aspect and personal pronouns: The history of aorist markers in north Vanuatu

| editor1-last = Pawley

| editor1-first = Andrew

| editor2-last = Adelaar

| editor2-first = Alexander

| title = Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: A festschrift for Bob Blust

| contribution-url= https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2009_Aorist-pronouns_Festschrift-Blust.pdf

| volume = 601

| pages = 179–195

| publisher = Pacific Linguistics

| place = Canberra

| year = 2009

| series =

| ref = aorist

}}

• {{citation

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|author-mask= 2

|year=2011

|title=Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence

|journal=Journal of Historical Linguistics

|volume=1

|issue=2

|pages=175–246

|doi=10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra

|url=https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2011_JHL1-2_Social-ecology_Vanuatu.pdf

|ref=ecology

|hdl=1885/29283

|hdl-access=free

}}.

• {{citation

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|author-mask= 2

|year=2012

|title=The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages

|journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language

|issue=214

|doi=10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022

|pages=85–110

|url=https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2012_NorthVanuatuSocioling_IJSL.pdf

|ref=IJSL

}}

• {{Citation

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

| author-link = Alexandre Françoisv

| author-mask= 2

| contribution = Shadows of bygone lives: The histories of spiritual words in northern Vanuatu

| editor1-last = Mailhammer

| editor1-first = Robert

| title = Lexical and structural etymology: Beyond word histories

| volume = 11

| pages = 185–244

| publisher = DeGruyter Mouton

| place = Berlin

| year = 2013

| series = Studies in Language Change

| isbn =978-1-61451-058-1

| contribution-url=https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2013_Shadows-of-bygone-lives-The-histories-of-spiritual-words-in-northern-Vanuatu.pdf

| ref=etymology

}}

• {{Citation

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

| author-mask= 2

| contribution = Trees, Waves and Linkages: Models of Language Diversification

| editor1-last = Bowern

| editor1-first = Claire

| editor2-last = Evans

| editor2-first = Bethwyn

| title = The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics

| series=

| pages = 161–189

| publisher = Routledge

| place = London

| year = 2014

| isbn = 978-0-41552-789-7

| contribution-url = https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00874726/

| ref = linkage

}}

• {{Cite book

| publisher = Asia-Pacific Linguistics

| isbn = 978-1-922185-23-5

| pages = 137–195

| editor1= Alexandre François |editor2=Sébastien Lacrampe |editor3=Michael Franjieh |editor4=Stefan Schnell

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

| author-mask= 2

| title = The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity

| chapter = The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages

| location = Canberra

| series = Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia

| url = http://hdl.handle.net/1885/14819

| contribution-url= https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2015_North-Vanuatu-space-directionals.pdf

| date = 2015

| hdl = 1885/14819

| ref = updown

}}

• {{citation

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|author-mask= 2

|year=2016

|contribution = The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu

|editor1-last = Pozdniakov

|editor1-first = Konstantin

|title = Comparatisme et reconstruction : tendances actuelles

|volume = 47

|pages = 25–60

|publisher = Peter Lang

|place = Bern

|series = Faits de Langues

|contribution-url= https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2016_History-personal-pronouns_north-Vanuatu_s.pdf

|ref=pronouns

}}

• {{Cite book

| publisher = Peeters

| pages = 43–82

| editor1= Jean-Léo Léonard

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

| author-mask= 2

| title = Diffusion : implantation, affinités, convergence

| chapter = Méthode comparative et chaînages linguistiques: Pour un modèle diffusionniste en généalogie des langues

| location = Louvain

| series = Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris

| date = 2017

| contribution-url = https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2017_Modele-diffusionniste_MSLP-24.pdf

| ref= slp

}}

• {{Citation

| last1 = Kalyan

| first1 = Siva

| author1-link =

| last2 = François

| first2 = Alexandre

| author2-link =

| contribution = Freeing the Comparative Method from the tree model: A framework for Historical Glottometry

| editor1-last = Kikusawa

| editor1-first = Ritsuko

| editor2-last = Reid

| editor2-first = Laurie

| title = Let's talk about trees: Tackling Problems in Representing Phylogenic Relationships among Languages

| series= Senri Ethnological Studies, 98

| pages = 59–89

| publisher = National Museum of Ethnology

| place = Ōsaka

| year = 2018

| isbn =

| contribution-url = https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/Kalyan-Francois_2018_Freeing-Comparative-Method-from-Tree-model_print.pdf

| ref = kf

}}

• {{cite book |title=A Comparative Study of the Melanesian Island Languages |last=Ray |first=Sidney Herbert |authorlink=Sidney Herbert Ray |year=1926 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9781107682023 |pages=xvi+598 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h9tkAwAAQBAJ |accessdate= |ref=Ray}}

• [http://alex.francois.online.fr/AF-field.htm Map and information on the 17 Torres & Banks languages].

{{Southern Oceanic languages}}

{{Austronesian languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:North Vanuatu Languages}}

Category:Languages of Vanuatu

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