Meso-Melanesian languages

The Meso-Melanesian languages are a linkage of Oceanic languages spoken in the large Melanesian islands of New Ireland and the Solomon Islands east of New Guinea.

Meso-Melanesian
Geographic
distribution
Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands
Linguistic classificationAustronesian
Glottologmeso1253

Composition

The languages of New Ireland are part of the Meso-Melanesian linkage.

The languages group as follows:[1]

Ethnologue adds Guramalum to the St George linkage.

The Willaumez Peninsula on the north coast of New Britain was evidently the center of dispersal.

Language contact

Lenition in Lamasong, Madak, Barok, Nalik, and Kara may have diffused via influence from Kuot, the only non-Austronesian language spoken on New Ireland (Ross 1994: 566).[2]

References

  1. Lynch, John; Malcolm Ross; Terry Crowley (2002). The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon. ISBN 9780700711284. OCLC 48929366.
  2. Ross, Malcolm. 1994. Areal phonological features in north central New Ireland. In: Dutton and Tryon (eds.) Language contact and change in the Austronesian world, 551–572. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.


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