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Concept
Oceanic languages
Summary
The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages are spoken by only two million people. The largest individual Oceanic languages are Eastern Fijian with over 600,000 speakers, and Samoan with an estimated 400,000 speakers. The Gilbertese (Kiribati), Tongan, Tahitian, Māori and Tolai (Gazelle Peninsula) languages each have over 100,000 speakers. The common ancestor which is reconstructed for this group of languages is called Proto-Oceanic (abbr. "POc").
The Oceanic languages were first shown to be a language family by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1896 and, besides Malayo-Polynesian, they are the only established large branch of Austronesian languages. Grammatically, they have been strongly influenced by the Papuan languages of northern New Guinea, but they retain a remarkably large amount of Austronesian vocabulary.
According to Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002), Oceanic languages often form linkages with each other. Linkages are formed when languages emerged historically from an earlier dialect continuum. The linguistic innovations shared by adjacent languages define a chain of intersecting subgroups (a linkage), for which no distinct proto-language can be reconstructed.
Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002) propose three primary groups of Oceanic languages:
Admiralties linkage: languages of Manus Island, its offshore islands, and small islands to the west.
Western Oceanic (WOc) linkage: languages of the north coast of Irian Jaya (Western New Guinea), Papua New Guinea (excluding the Admiralties) and the western Solomon Islands. West Oceanic is made up of three or four sub-linkages and families:
? Sarmi–Jayapura linkage: maybe part of the North New Guinea linkage?
North New Guinea linkage: consists of languages of the north coast of New Guinea, east from Jayapura.
Meso-Melanesian linkage: consists of languages of the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands.
Official source
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