New Georgia languages
Encyclopedia
The ten New Georgia languages are a group of the Northwest Solomonic languages
Northwest Solomonic languages
The family of Northwest Solomonic languages is a branch of the Oceanic languages. It includes the Austronesian languages of Bougainville and Buka in Papua New Guinea, and of Choiseul, New Georgia, and Santa Isabel in the Solomon Islands....

 spoken on or near New Georgia Island in the Western Province of Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

.

Languages

The unity of the Choiseul languages is supported by a 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database However, that did not support the traditional classification into East and West branches. Marovo and Hoava, "East" and "West", and classified together with 90% probability, and together with two other "West" languages with full support. Since only four languages were included in the database, the overall structure of the family is unclear.
  • Simbo
    Simbo language
    Simbo is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,700 people on Simbo Island, Solomon Islands....

     (Simbo Island)
  • Roviana–Marovo
    • Roviana
      Roviana language
      Roviana is a member of the North West Solomonic subgroup of Oceanic languages. It is spoken around Roviana and Vonavona lagoons at the north central New Georgia in the Solomon Islands...

       (New Georgia Island)
    • Hoava–Marovo
      • Marovo
        Marovo language
        Marovo is an Austronesian language of the Solomon Islands. It is spoken in the New Georgia Group on islands in Marovo Lagoon and on the neighbouring islands of New Georgia, Vangunu and Nggatokae...

         (New Georgia Island)
      • Hoava
        Hoava language
        Hoava is an Oceanic language spoken by about 1000-1500 people on New Georgia Island, Solomon Islands. Speakers of Hoava are multilingual and usually also speak Roviana, Marovo, SI Pijin, English.-References:...

         (New Georgia Island)


The other languages are Vangunu
Vangunu language
Vangunu is an Oceanic language spoken by about 900 people on Vangunu Island, Solomon Islands. Speakers of Vangunu also use the closely related Marovo....

 (on Vangunu Island), traditionally classified as East; and Duke
Duke language
Duke is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,000 people on Kolombangara island, Solomon Islands. Speakers of Duke tend to use several languages....

 (Kolambanggara Island), Ghanongga
Ghanongga language
Ghanongga is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,500 people on Ranongga Island, Solomon Islands....

 (Ranongga Island), Kusaghe
Kusaghe language
Kusaghe is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,400 people on New Georgia Island, Solomon Islands....

 (New Georgia Island), Lungga
Lungga language
Lungga is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in the Solomon Islands....

  (Ranongga Island), and Ughele
Ughele language
Ughele is an Oceanic language spoken by about 1200 people on Rendova Island, Solomon Islands....

 (North Rendova Island
Rendova Island
Rendova Island is an island, part of the New Georgia Islands of Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, east of Papua New Guinea. There are two indigenous languages spoken on Rendova Island: the Austronesian language Ughele in the north, and the Papuan language Touo in the south.The black-sand...

), all traditionally classified as West.

In addition, the extinct Kazukuru language
Kazukuru language
Kazukuru is an extinct language that was once spoken in New Georgia, Solomon Islands. The Dororo and Guliguli languages are supposedly its only known relations. The speakers of Kazukuru gradually merged with the Roviana people from the sixteenth century onward, and adopted Roviana as their language...

 (including two possible dialects Guliguli
Guliguli language
Guliguli is an extinct language that was allegedly once spoken on the western slopes of Mt Vinaroni, New Georgia, Solomon Islands. The linguist Karen Davis is skeptical that Guliguli ever existed, since the word guliguli has an obscene meaning in the neighboring Hoava language, and there is no...

 and Dororo
Dororo language
Dororo or Doriri is an extinct language that was once spoken in New Georgia . Dororo might have been a dialect of the extinct Kazukuro language....

) was probably one of the New Georgia languages.
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