Central Vanuatu | |
Region: | Vanuatu |
Familycolor: | Austronesian |
Fam3: | Oceanic |
Fam4: | Southern Oceanic |
Glotto: | cent2269 |
Glottorefname: | Central Vanuatu |
The Central Vanuatu languages form a linkage of Southern Oceanic languages spoken in central Vanuatu.
Clark (2009) provides the following classification of the Central Vanuatu languages, divided into geographic areas.[1] Outlier (aberrant) languages identified by Clark (2009) are in italics. Clark's Central Vanuatu branch is wider in scope, including not only the Shepherd–Efate languages, but also the Malakula and Ambrym–Paama–Epi languages.
North Ambrym, West Ambrym, South Ambrym
The following list of 19 Central Vanuatu languages (excluding the Malakula languages) is from François et al. (2015:18–21).
No. | Language | Other names | Speakers | Region | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
107 | 5250 | Ambrym | ||||
108 | 30 | Ambrym | ||||
109 | 3700 | Ambrym | ||||
110 | 1300 | Ambrym | ||||
111 | 1200 | Ambrym | ||||
112 | 1000 | Ambrym | ||||
113 | <10 | Ambrym | ||||
114 | 6000 | Paama | ||||
115 | 850 | Epi, Lamen | ||||
116 | 2200 | Epi | ||||
117 | 900 | Epi | ||||
118 | 350 | Epi | ||||
119 | 180 | Epi | ||||
120 | 25 | Epi | ||||
121 | 3750 | Efate, Shepherd Islands (Tongoa, Tongariki) | ||||
123 | 9500 | Efate, Shepherd Islands (Nguna, Tongoa) | ||||
124 | 400 | Efate, Lelepa | ||||
125 | 500 | Efate | ||||
126 | 6000 | Efate |
Additionally, the extinct Sowa language was formerly spoken in central Vanuatu.