Languages of the Solomon Islands archipelago
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Over 70 languages are spoken in the Solomon Islands archipelago[1] which covers a broader area than the nation state of Solomon Islands,[2] and includes the island of Bougainville, which is an autonomous province of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The lingua franca of the Solomon Islands proper is Pijin (whereas the lingua franca of Bougainville is Tok Pisin) and the official language in both countries is English.
| Languages of the Solomon Islands archipelago | |
|---|---|
Language families of the Solomon Islands archipelago Red: North Bougainville Blue: South Bougainville Green: Central Solomons Grey: Austronesian | |
| Official | English |
| Indigenous | Several languages |
| Vernacular | Pijin, Solomon Islands English |
| Keyboard layout | |
Language families
Most of the languages in the Solomon Islands archipelago are Austronesian languages.
The Central Solomon languages such as Bilua, Lavukaleve, Savosavo and Touo constitute an independent family within the Papuan languages.[3]
Two other language families are represented on Bougainville, which forms part of the nation of Papua New Guinea but is geographically part of the archipelago.
The status of the Reefs – Santa Cruz languages were once thought to be non-Austronesian, but further research found them to be divergent Austronesian languages.[4] The neighbouring languages of Vanikoro are also heavily relexified Austronesian languages.[5]
An indigenous sign language, Rennellese Sign Language, has gone extinct.
Languages of the Solomon Islands archipelago
Summarize
Perspective
The following table lists 72 indigenous languages, including 66 from the Oceanic family, 4 from a “Papuan” family (Central Solomonic), as well as one Creole and one sign language.
Italics indicate that a language is extinct.
Footnotes
Sources
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