Languages of Oceania
Admiralties and Yapese
St Matthias
Western Oceanic
Temotu
Southeast Solomons
Southern Oceanic
Micronesian
Samoan-Polynesian
Native languages of Oceania fall into three major geographic groups:
- The large Austronesian language family, with such languages as Malay (Indonesian), Tagalog (Filipino), and Polynesian languages such as Māori and Hawaiian
- The various Aboriginal Australian language families, including the large Pama–Nyungan family
- The various Papuan language families of New Guinea and neighbouring islands, including the large Trans–New Guinea family
Contact between Austronesian and Papuan resulted in several instances in mixed languages such as Maisin.
Colonial languages include:
- English in Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and many other territories
- French in New Caledonia, in Vanuatu, in Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia
- Japanese in Palau and the Bonin Islands
- Spanish in Easter Island, in Micronesia[1] and Guam
There are also creoles formed from the interaction of Malay or the colonial languages with indigenous languages, such as Tok Pisin, Bislama, Pijin, various Malay trade and creole languages, Samoan Plantation Pidgin, Hawaiian Pidgin, Norfuk, Pitkern,[2] and Unserdeutsch
Finally, immigrants brought their own languages, such as Mandarin, Italian, Arabic, Cantonese, Greek and others in Australia,[3] or Fiji Hindi in Fiji.
See also
References
- ^ There are about 3000 total Spanish speaker who speak Spanish, but only 300 of them are native speakers
- ^ Barbosa da Silva, Diego (2019). "Política Linguística Na Oceania: Nas Fronteiras da Colonização e da Globalização". Alfa: Revista de Linguística. 63 (2): 317–347. doi:10.1590/1981-5794-1909-4. ISSN 0002-5216. S2CID 204627919.
- ^ "Main Features - Cultural Diversity in Australia". 21 June 2012.
External links
Media related to Languages of Oceania at Wikimedia Commons
