Torres–Banks languages
The Torres–Banks languages form a linkage of Southern Oceanic languages spoken in the Torres Islands and Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu.
| Torres–Banks | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Torres Islands and Banks Islands, Torba Province, northern Vanuatu |
| Linguistic classification | Austronesian
|
| Glottolog | torr1262 |
Languages
François (2011) recognizes 17 languages spoken by 9,400 people in 50 villages, including 16 living (3 of which are moribund) and one extinct language.[1]
The 17 languages, ranked from northwest to southeast, are:[1]:181
Language Number of speakers ISO 639-3 code Island(s) spoken Hiw 280 hiw Hiw Lo-Toga 580 lht Tegua, Lo, Toga Lehali 200 tql Ureparapara Löyöp 240 urr Ureparapara Volow extinct mlv Mota Lava Mwotlap 2100 mlv Mota Lava Lemerig 2 (moribund) lrz Vanua Lava Vera'a 500 vra Vanua Lava Vurës 2000 msn Vanua Lava Mwesen 10 (moribund) msn Vanua Lava Mota 750 mtt Mota Nume 700 tgs Gaua Dorig 300 wwo Gaua Koro 250 krf Gaua Olrat 3 (moribund) olr Gaua Lakon 800 lkn Gaua Mwerlap 1100 mrm Merelava
Codrington (1885) also lists the Alo-Teqel language, long since extinct.
Comparative studies
A. François has published several studies comparing various features of the Torres–Banks languages:
- François (2005): Inventories of vowel systems, and their historical development;
- François (2007): Systems of noun articles, and their historical development;
- François (2009): How several languages grammaticalized a set of light personal pronouns into markers for “aorist” aspect;
- François (2011): How Torres–Banks languages tend to show structural isomorphism, yet lexical diversity;
- François (2013): Etymological reconstruction of spiritual terms in Torres–Banks languages;
- François (2015): Systems of geocentric space directionals, and their historical development;
- François (2016): Historical morphology of personal pronouns.
François (2012) is a sociolinguistic study of the area.
Genealogical structure of the Torres–Banks linkage
The internal structure of the Torres–Banks linkage was assessed based on the Comparative method, and presented in the framework of historical glottometry (François 2014, 2017; Kalyan & François 2018).
Kalyan & François (2018: 81) identified the following best-supported subgroups (in decreasing order of genealogical closeness):
- Mwotlap – Volow
- Hiw – Lo-Toga
- Vurës – Mwesen
- Lemerig – Vera'a
- Koro – Olrat – Lakon
- Dorig – Koro – Olrat – Lakon
- Olrat – Lakon
- Lehali – Löyöp – Mwotlap – Volow
- 15 Banks languages together (Lehali – Löyöp – Mwotlap – Volow – Lemerig – Vera'a – Vurës – Mwesen – Mota – Nume – Dorig – Koro – Olrat – Lakon – Mwerlap)
- etc.
Notes
References
- Codrington, Robert Henry (1885). The Melanesian Languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press (full text from the Internet Archive).
- François, Alexandre (2005), "Unraveling the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF), Oceanic Linguistics, 44 (2): 443–504, doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0034
- François, Alexandre (2007), "Noun articles in Torres and Banks languages: Conservation and innovation" (PDF), in Siegel, Jeff; Lynch, John; Eades, Diana (eds.), Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley, Creole Language Library 30, Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 313–326
- François, Alexandre (2009), "Verbal aspect and personal pronouns: The history of aorist markers in north Vanuatu" (PDF), in Pawley, Andrew; Adelaar, Alexander (eds.), Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: A festschrift for Bob Blust, 601, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, pp. 179–195
- François, Alexandre (2011), "Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence", Journal of Historical Linguistics, 1 (2): 175–246, doi:10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra.
- François, Alexandre (2012), "The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF), International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 214 (214): 85–110, doi:10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022
- François, Alexandre (2013), "Shadows of bygone lives: The histories of spiritual words in northern Vanuatu" (PDF), in Mailhammer, Robert (ed.), Lexical and structural etymology: Beyond word histories, Studies in Language Change, 11, Berlin: DeGruyter Mouton, pp. 185–244, ISBN 978-1-61451-058-1
- François, Alexandre (2014), "Trees, Waves and Linkages: Models of Language Diversification", in Bowern, Claire; Evans, Bethwyn (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics, London: Routledge, pp. 161–189, ISBN 978-0-41552-789-7
- François, Alexandre (2015). "The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages" (PDF). In Alexandre François; Sébastien Lacrampe; Michael Franjieh; Stefan Schnell (eds.). The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. pp. 137–195. ISBN 978-1-922185-23-5.
- François, Alexandre (2016), "The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu" (PDF), in Pozdniakov, Konstantin (ed.), Comparatisme et reconstruction : tendances actuelles, Faits de Langues, 47, Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 25–60
- François, Alexandre (2017). "Méthode comparative et chaînages linguistiques: Pour un modèle diffusionniste en généalogie des langues" (PDF). In Jean-Léo Léonard (ed.). Diffusion : implantation, affinités, convergence. Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris. Louvain: Peeters. pp. 43–82.
- Kalyan, Siva; François, Alexandre (2018), "Freeing the Comparative Method from the tree model: A framework for Historical Glottometry" (PDF), in Kikusawa, Ritsuko; Reid, Laurie (eds.), Let's talk about trees: Tackling Problems in Representing Phylogenic Relationships among Languages, Senri Ethnological Studies, 98, Ōsaka: National Museum of Ethnology, pp. 59–89
External links
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