Southeast Solomonic languages

Southeast Solomonic
Geographic distribution:	Solomon Islands
Linguistic classification:	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Central–Eastern Southeast Solomonic
Subdivisions:	Gela–Guadalcanal Malaita – San Cristobal
Glottolog:	sout2853[1]
Southeast Solomons

The family of Southeast Solomonic languages forms a branch of the Oceanic languages. It consists of some 26 languages covering the South East Solomon Islands, from the tip of Santa Isabel to Makira. The fact that there is little diversity amongst these languages, compared to groups of similar size in Melanesia, suggests that they dispersed in the relatively recent past.^[2] Bugotu is one of the most conservative languages.

Languages

According to Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002), the structure of the family is as follows:^[3]

• Bugotu–Gela–Guadalcanal family
  • Bughotu (Bugotu)
  • Gela–Guadalcanal family
    • Gelic: Lengo, Gela
    • Guadalcanal: Birao, Ghari, Malango, Talise
• Longgu–Malaita–Makira family
  • Longgu
  • Malaita–Makira family
    • Sa'a
    • Makira (San Cristobal): Arosi, Fagani, Bauro, Kahua–Owa, ?Marau Wawa
    • Malaita
      • Central–North Malaita: North (To'abaita, Baelelea, Baeggu, Fataleka), Lau, Kwara'ae, Wala, Gula'alaa, Kwaio, Dori'o
      • Southern Malaita: 'Are'are, Marau, Oroha

References

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Southeast Solomonic". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
2. Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. 2002. The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.
3. Lynch, John; Malcolm Ross; Terry Crowley (2002). The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon. ISBN 978-0-7007-1128-4. OCLC 48929366. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)