- What are the Language Regions of Oceania?
- 1- Austranesia Region
- 2- Papuan Region
- 3- Aboriginal Region of Australia
- References
The linguistic regions of Oceania are the Austranesia region, the Papuan region and the Aboriginal region of Australia.
These are clearly distinguished throughout their geography by the diversity of their languages and their origin.
More than 2,000 languages are spoken in Oceania, distributed among some 40 million inhabitants, in the 14 countries that make up this continent.
In the vast majority of the islands of Oceania, a different language is spoken per island, which gives this continent an incomparable variety and linguistic richness.
One of the most prominent cases in terms of linguistic density is Vanuatu, which has three official languages, but also has more than 100 Creole languages for a population of 294,000 inhabitants (2017).
What are the Language Regions of Oceania?
The great linguistic variety of Oceania is due to the influence of European languages, the combination of the native languages of the region, and the geographic separations between island portions.
The social distribution of geographic sectors also affects. The Melanesians, for example, have a segmented social formation, in which it is essential to differentiate between ethnic groups, and for this, they create particular linguistic codes.
In Oceania, three major linguistic regions are distinguished, which are detailed below:
1- Austranesia Region
The Austranesian languages range from the Island of Madagascar, to the Malay Archipelago, Australia and the Polynesian Islands. Basically, they are scattered along the coast and the surrounding islands.
The origins of this linguistic region lie on the southern coast of China, although they also have a strong influence from Taiwan, dating back more than 6,000 years.
The Austranesia Region comprises a large linguistic family of more than 1,250 languages, and they are divided into two large blocks:
a) Formosan languages: its name is derived from the ancient Formosan Island, known today as Taiwan.
The Austranesian languages of this sector are mostly spoken by the indigenous groups of Taiwan, which represents less than 2% of the population of that province.
b) Malay-Polynesian languages: they are spoken on the islands of Southeast Asia and on the islands of the Pacific Ocean. In essence it comprises Malaysia, the Philippines and the Polynesian Islands.
2- Papuan Region
The Papuan languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea, Tonga, the Solomon Islands and the eastern Indonesian islands, among which are the islands of Halmahera, Alor-Pantar and the mountainous regions of Timor.
The Papuan Region has 750 languages, approximately. Its origins lie more than 20,000 years ago.
3- Aboriginal Region of Australia
The aboriginal languages of Australia make up a small group of indigenous languages of approximately 150 indigenous languages.
These languages are divided into twelve language families and are currently spoken by some 50,000 Australians.
Among the most popular Aboriginal languages in Australia are Tiwi, Pitjantjatjara, Warlpiri, Gupapuynu, Wajarri, Enindhilyagwa and Daly.
References
- Claire Moyse-Faurie (2011). The oceanic continent, champion of multilingualism? Recovered from: sorosoro.org
- Australian Aboriginal Languages (2012). Recovered from: absolutviajes.com
- Languages spoken in Oceania (2015). Recovered from: Viajesoceania.com
- Official and Spoken Languages of Australia and the Pacifics (nd). Recovered from: nationsonline.org
- Sánchez, C. (2012). European linguistic influence in Oceania. Recovered from: oceaniaysuslenguas.blogspot.com
- Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (2017). Austronesian languages. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (2017). Papuan languages. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org