The Meso-Melanesian languages are a linkage of Oceanic languages spoken in the large Melanesian islands of New Ireland and the Solomon Islands east of New Guinea. Bali is one of the most conservative languages.

Quick Facts Geographic distribution, Linguistic classification ...
Meso-Melanesian
Geographic
distribution
Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands
Linguistic classificationAustronesian
Proto-languageProto-Meso-Melanesian
Language codes
Glottologmeso1253
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Composition

The languages group as follows:[1]

Thumb
The languages of New Ireland are part of the Meso-Melanesian linkage.

Ethnologue adds Guramalum to the St George linkage.

The Willaumez Peninsula on the north coast of New Britain was evidently the center of dispersal.

Johnston (1982) combines the Willaumez and Bali–Vitu branches into a single Kimbe branch, for which he reconstructs Proto-Kimbe.[2]

Language contact

Lenition in Lamasong, Madak, Barok, Nalik, and Kara may have diffused via influence from Kuot, the only non-Austronesian language spoken on New Ireland (Ross 1994: 566).[3]

References

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