Languages of Oceania
Native languages of Oceania fall into three major geographic groups:
- The large Austronesian language family, with such languages as Malay (Indonesian), Tagalog (Filipino), and Polynesian languages such as Maori and Hawaiian
- The Aboriginal Australian languages, including the large Pama–Nyungan family
- The Papuan languages of New Guinea and neighbouring islands, including the large Trans–New Guinea family
Contact between Austronesian and Papuan resulted in several instances in mixed languages such as Maisin.
Colonial languages include English in Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and many other territories; French in New Caledonia and French Polynesia, Japanese in the Bonin Islands; Spanish on Easter Island and Galápagos Islands; and Portuguese in East Timor.
There are also Creoles formed from the interaction of Malay or the colonial languages with indigenous languages, such as Tok Pisin, Bislama, Pijin, various Malay trade and creole languages, Hawaiian Pidgin, Norfuk, and Pitkern.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
[ edit ]
of New Zealand
and other territories
|This Austronesian languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|