Temotu languages

History of classification

The Reefs-Santa Cruz languages had previously been considered Papuan, but Ross & Næss (2007) established that their closest relatives were the Utupua–Vanikoro languages, previously thought to be Central–Eastern Oceanic. However, Roger Blench (2014) argues that the aberrancy of Utupua and Vanikoro, which he considers to be separate branches that do not group with each other, is due to the fact that they are actually non-Austronesian languages.

Blench (2014) doubts that Utupua and Vanikoro are closely related, and argues that thus they should not be grouped together. Since each of the three Utupua and three Vanikoro languages are highly distinct from each other, Blench doubts that these languages had diversified on the islands of Utupua and Vanikoro, but had rather migrated to the islands from elsewhere. According to Blench, historically this was due to the Lapita demographic expansion consisting of both Austronesian and non-Austronesian settlers migrating from the Lapita homeland in the Bismarck Archipelago to various islands further to the east.

More recently, Lackey & Boerger (2021) finds no phonological evidence for an Utupua-Vanikoro subgroup, suggesting that they actually consist of two primary branches.

Languages

• Reef Islands–Santa Cruz: Äiwoo, Nanggu, Natügu, Nalögo, Noipä
• Utupua: Amba, Asumboa, Tanimbili
• Vanikoro: Teanu, Lovono, Tanema

François (2009) notes that the lexicons of all three Vanikoro languages are highly distinct from each other and do not appear to be closely related, although their grammars are all similar.

References

References

1. (2007). "An Oceanic origin for Äiwoo, the language of the Reef Islands?". Oceanic Linguistics.
2. Blench, Roger. 2014. [https://www.academia.edu/5838021/ Lapita Canoes and Their Multi-Ethnic Crews: Might Marginal Austronesian Languages Be Non-Austronesian?]. Paper presented at the ''Workshop on the Languages of Papua'' 3. 20–24 January 2014, Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia.
3. (2021). "Reexamining the phonological history of Oceanic's Temotu subgroup". Oceanic Linguistics.
4. François, Alexandre. (2009). "Discovering history through language: Papers in honour of Malcolm Ross". Australian National University.