|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oceanic languages |
| Oceanic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: |
Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genetic classification: |
Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (MP) Nuclear MP Central-Eastern MP Eastern MP Oceanic |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subdivisions: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The branches of Oceanic
The black ovals at the northwestern limit of Micronesian are the Sunda-Sulawesi languages Palauan and Chamorro. The black circles in with the green are offshore Papuan languages. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Oceanic languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, containing approximately 450 languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia.
Despite covering such a vast area, Oceanic languages are spoken by less than two million people. The largest individual Oceanic languages are Samoan and Eastern Fijian, with over 300,000 speakers. Kiribati (Gilbertese), Tongan, and perhaps Kuanua (Tolai) have 100,000 speakers apiece.
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.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |