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Malakula Internal Subgrouping: Phonological Evidence
- Oceanic Linguistics
- University of Hawai'i Press
- Volume 55, Number 2, December 2016
- pp. 399-431
- 10.1353/ol.2016.0019
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
The languages of Malakula belong to the Central Vanuatu subgroup of Southern Oceanic. Although many of them are not well described grammatically or lexicographically, there is sufficient information available to attempt a preliminary classification. Building on earlier work by Tryon and Clark, evidence of a phonological nature will be presented below to show that there appear to be three major lower-order groupings of Malakula languages: a Northern subgroup, an Eastern linkage, and a Western linkage. There is also some evidence that all Malakula languages probably belong to a single grouping exclusive of other Central Vanuatu languages, though this evidence is not very strong.