Central Solomon languages

Last updated
Central Solomons
(tentative)
Geographic
distribution		 Solomon Islands
Linguistic classification One of the world's primary language families
Proto-languageProto-Central Solomons
Subdivisions
Language codes
Glottolog None
Central Solomons languages.png
Language families of the Solomon Islands.
  Central Solomons

The Central Solomon languages are the four Papuan languages spoken in the state of Solomon Islands.

Contents

The four languages are, listed from northwest to southeast,

Classification

The four Central Solomon languages were identified as a family by Wilhelm Schmidt in 1908. The languages are at best distantly related, and evidence for their relationship is meager. Dunn and Terrill (2012) argue that the lexical evidence vanishes when Oceanic loanwords are excluded. [1] Ross (2005) and Pedrós (2015), however, accept a connection, based on similarities among pronouns and other grammatical forms.

Pedrós (2015) suggests, tentatively, that the branching of the family is as follows.

Central Solomons

Savosavo and Bilua, despite being the most distant languages geographically, both split more recently than Lavukaleve and Touo according to Pedrós.

Palmer (2018) regards the evidence for Central Solomons as tentative but promising. [2]

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) [3] grouped Touo, Savosavo, and Bilua together. Lavukaleve was not included [4] . However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

Pronoun reconstructions

Pedrós (2015) argues for the existence of the family through comparison of pronouns and other gender, person and number morphemes and based on the existence of a common syncretism between 2nd person nonsingular and inclusive. He performs an internal reconstruction for the pronominal morphemes of each language and then proposes a reconstruction of some of the pronouns of the claimed family. The reconstructions are the following:

1 singular2 singularinclusive/
2 non-singular		1 exclusive
Pre-Savosavo*a-ɲi*no*mea-
Pre-Touoe̤noe*mee̤-
Pre-Lavukaleve*ŋai*ŋo*mee
Pre-Bilua*ani/*aŋai*ŋomee-
Proto-Central Solomons*ani/*aŋai*ŋo*me*e

Numerals

Central Solomon numerals from Pedrós (2015):

numeral Savosavo Touo Lavukaleve Bilua
1ˈela, ˈpade / paaɺo / azoˈtelakom, ˈtelakoˈomadeu, ˈmadeu
2ˈedoe̤ɺiˈlelemal, ˈlelaol, ˈlelaɰel, ˈlemalˈomuga, ˈmuga
3iˈɰiβa / iˈɰiahieˈeŋaˈzouke, ke
4ˈaɰaβaa̤vonunˈariku
5ˈarasoduˈsieˈsike, ke

As the comparisons indicate, lexical evidence for the relatedness of the four languages is limited.

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from Tryon & Hackman (1982), [5] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database. [6] The Savosavo data is from Claudia Wegener's field notes. [7]

The words cited constitute translation equivalents, with no claim as to whether they are cognate or not. If one sets apart the obvious loanwords from Oceanic languages (e.g. batu, vatu for “head”, susu for “breast”), the number of potential cognates across these four varieties is evidently very low.

gloss Lavukaleve Mbaniata
(Lokuru dial.) 		Mbilua
(Ndovele dial.) 		Savosavo
headvatuuɔlezubatu
hairmemeazufutouluta; sivuɰa
earhovulōŋgototaliŋatagalu
eyelemimberɔvilunito
nosesisiemɔŋgameɲoko
toothneonānetakanale
tongueletānlleñolapi
legtau furimeɔekiti
lousekea; lailisa; vutusipi; tiŋgaudole
dogmitakeusiesielemisu
birdmalaɣulmānozombiaŋambiaŋakosu
eggkeruvāndenatɔrurukolei; si
bloodravuvondaraɰabu
bonesosokiominupizatovolo
skinkeutzuɔnatupukorakora
breastɔfususususususu
manalifinɔzɔmambatada
womanairaŋgoherekoadaki
skytotoāsuziaauoka
moonkuaīndikambosokuɰe
waterlafifiɔnĵupiva
firelakehirɔuzakeda
stonembeko; vekohɛŋgalandokato
road, pathlakeekevekeva
namelaŋininiŋinini
eateu; eui; ouneazafevuatol-ou; samu
onedom; tetelomāroŋo; thufimandeuela; pade
twolelal; lemalēriomuŋgaedo

Syntax

All Central Solomon languages have SOV word order except for Bilua, which has SVO word order due to Oceanic influence. [8]

See also

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Michael Dunn & Angela Terrill (2012) Assessing the lexical evidence for a Central Solomons Papuan family using the Oswalt Monte Carlo test. Diachronica 29:1–27.
  2. ↑ Palmer, Bill (2018). "Language families of the New Guinea Area". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 1–20. ISBN   978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. ↑ Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013) .
  4. ↑ See further information in the Lavukaleve language Spanish article.
  5. ↑ Tryon, D.T. and Hackman, B.D. Solomon Islands languages: An internal classification. C-72, viii + 493 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1982. doi : 10.15144/PL-C72
  6. ↑ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "Central Solomons". TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea. Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  7. ↑ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "Savosavo". TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea. Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  8. ↑ Stebbins, Tonya; Evans, Bethwyn; Terrill, Angela (2018). "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 775–894. ISBN   978-3-11-028642-7.
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