The exceptional linguistic density of Vanuatu

Alexandre François (1, 2) , Michael Franjieh (3) , Sébastien Lacrampe (2) , Stefan Schnell (4)

1 LACITO - Langues et civilisations à tradition orale
2 ANU - Australian National University
3 UoN - University of Newcastle [Callaghan, Australia]
4 La Trobe University [Melbourne]

The Republic of Vanuatu, a small archipelago of island Melanesia, is home to 138 distinct Oceanic languages, for which we provide here a new list and map. This updated figure, obtained by combining earlier sources and more recent information from experts, makes Vanuatu the country with the highest language density in the world, whether compared to its land surface, or to its population. This modern density is not due to genealogical diversity, but reflects three millennia of in situ diversification from a single ancestor, Proto Oceanic. This historical process took the form of multiple linguistic innovations that spread across the dialect continuum in entangled patterns, bringing about the mosaic we know today. Vanuatu’s linguistic diversity is now increasingly threatened by the spread of the national language, Bislama. The various chapters in this volume describe and discuss some of the cultural and linguistic features that make Vanuatu such a diverse archipelago.

Mots clés: Languages and Linguistics; Vanuatu; Sociolinguistics of multilingualism; Pidgins and Creoles; Bislama; Pacific Islands; Linguistic Context; Human geography

Domaines: Linguistique

Alexandre François, Michael Franjieh, Sébastien Lacrampe, Stefan Schnell. The exceptional linguistic density of Vanuatu: Introduction to the volume. Alexandre François; Sébastien Lacrampe; Michael Franjieh; Stefan Schnell. The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity, 5, Asia-Pacific Linguistics Open Access, pp.1-21, 2015, Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia, 9781922185235. ⟨halshs-01186007⟩