EntityQ324457· pop 40· linked from 1,106 articles

Oceanic

subgroup of the Austronesian language family

Key facts

Geographic distribution: Oceania , ( Melanesia Micronesia Polynesia )
Linguistic classification: Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic
Proto language: Proto-Oceanic
Subdivisions: Admiralty Islands – Yapese St Matthias Islands Western Oceanic Temotu Central–Eastern Oceanic
Glottolog: ocea1241

via Wikipedia infobox

Article

The Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages comprising some 450 languages spoken in Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages are estimated to have only two million native speakers. The largest individual Oceanic languages are Eastern Fijian with over 600,000 speakers, and Samoan with an estimated 400,000 speakers. The Gilbertese (Kiribati), Tongan, Tahitian, Māori and Tolai (Gazelle Peninsula) languages each have over 100,000 speakers. The common ancestor which is reconstructed for this group of languages is called Proto-Oceanic (abbr. "POc").

Classification