Southern Melanesian languages

E624766

Southern Melanesian languages are a subgroup of Oceanic languages spoken primarily in the southern regions of Melanesia, including parts of Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and nearby islands.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Southern Melanesian languages canonical 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf language subgroup
areCharacterizedBy Austronesian phonological features
complex pronominal systems
shared Oceanic lexical innovations
areDistinguishedFrom Papuan languages of Melanesia
areDocumentedBy field linguists
areDocumentedIn descriptive grammars
lexicons and wordlists
areEndangered some member languages
arePartOf Southern Oceanic linkage
areRelatedTo Central Melanesian languages
New Caledonian languages
Northern Vanuatu languages
areSpokenBy Melanesian peoples
linked to: Melanesians
areSpokenOn Pacific islands
areStudiedIn Austronesian comparative linguistics
Oceanic linguistics
linked to: Oceanic languages
areUsedFor local communication
belongToMacroArea Papunesia
coexistWith Bislama
English
French
other regional lingua francas
geographicDistribution southern regions of Melanesia
southwestern Pacific Ocean
hasFamily Austronesian
hasSubfamily Oceanic
hasSubgroup Southern Oceanic languages
haveStatus mostly minority languages
haveWordOrder SVO-dominant
haveWritingSystem primarily Latin script (for documented languages)
includeLanguagesSpokenIn Aneityum Island
Lifou Island
Tanna Island
linked to: Tanna
partOf Melanesian languages
shareFeature Austronesian-derived numerals
Oceanic possessive constructions
use of prepositions rather than case marking
spokenIn Loyalty Islands
Melanesia
New Caledonia
Vanuatu
southern Melanesia
southern Vanuatu
subclassOf Austronesian languages
Oceanic languages
typologicallyBelongTo Austronesian language type

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Southern Oceanic languages hasSubgroup Southern Melanesian languages