The Torres–Banks languages form a linkage of Southern Oceanic languages spoken in the Torres Islands and Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu.

Languages

François (2011) recognizes 17 languages spoken by 9,400 people in 50 villages, including 16 living (3 of which are moribund) and one extinct language.[1]

The 17 languages, ranked from northwest to southeast, are:[1]^: 181

Language	Number of speakers	ISO 639-3 code	Island(s) spoken
Hiw	280	hiw	Hiw
Lo-Toga	580	lht	Tegua, Lo, Toga
Lehali	200	tql	Ureparapara
Löyöp	240	urr	Ureparapara
Volow	extinct	mlv	Mota Lava
Mwotlap	2100	mlv	Mota Lava
Lemerig	2 (moribund)	lrz	Vanua Lava
Vera'a	500	vra	Vanua Lava
Vurës	2000	msn	Vanua Lava
Mwesen	10 (moribund)	msn	Vanua Lava
Mota	750	mtt	Mota
Nume	700	tgs	Gaua
Dorig	300	wwo	Gaua
Koro	250	krf	Gaua
Olrat	3 (moribund)	olr	Gaua
Lakon	800	lkn	Gaua
Mwerlap	1100	mrm	Merelava

Comparative studies

A. François has published several studies comparing various features of the Torres–Banks languages:

• François (2005): Inventories of vowel systems, and their historical development;
• François (2007): Systems of noun articles, and their historical development;
• François (2009): How several languages grammaticalized a set of light personal pronouns into markers for “aorist” aspect;
• François (2011): How Torres–Banks languages tend to show structural isomorphism, yet lexical diversity;
• François (2013): Etymological reconstruction of spiritual terms in Torres–Banks languages;
• François (2015): Systems of geocentric space directionals, and their historical development;
• François (2016): Historical morphology of personal pronouns.

François (2012) is a sociolinguistic study of the area.

Genealogical structure of the Torres–Banks linkage

The internal structure of the Torres–Banks linkage was assessed based on the Comparative method, and presented in the framework of historical glottometry (François 2014, 2017; Kalyan & François 2018).

Kalyan & François (2018: 81) identified the following best-supported subgroups (in decreasing order of genealogical closeness):

• Mwotlap – Volow
• Hiw – Lo-Toga
• Vurës – Mwesen
• Lemerig – Vera'a
• Koro – Olrat – Lakon
• Dorig – Koro – Olrat – Lakon
• Olrat – Lakon
• Lehali – Löyöp – Mwotlap – Volow
• 15 Banks languages together (Lehali – Löyöp – Mwotlap – Volow – Lemerig – Vera'a – Vurës – Mwesen – Mota – Nume – Dorig – Koro – Olrat – Lakon – Mwerlap)
• etc.

Proto-language

Notes

References

• Codrington, Robert Henry (1885). The Melanesian Languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press (full text from the Internet Archive).
• François, Alexandre (2005), "Unraveling the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF), Oceanic Linguistics, 44 (2): 443–504, doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0034
• François, Alexandre (2007), "Noun articles in Torres and Banks languages: Conservation and innovation" (PDF), in Siegel, Jeff; Lynch, John; Eades, Diana (eds.), Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley, Creole Language Library 30, Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 313–326
• François, Alexandre (2009), "Verbal aspect and personal pronouns: The history of aorist markers in north Vanuatu" (PDF), in Pawley, Andrew; Adelaar, Alexander (eds.), Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: A festschrift for Bob Blust, vol. 601, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, pp. 179–195
• François, Alexandre (2011), "Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence", Journal of Historical Linguistics, 1 (2): 175–246, doi:10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra, hdl:1885/29283.
• François, Alexandre (2012), "The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF), International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 214 (214): 85–110, doi:10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022
• François, Alexandre (2013), "Shadows of bygone lives: The histories of spiritual words in northern Vanuatu" (PDF), in Mailhammer, Robert (ed.), Lexical and structural etymology: Beyond word histories, Studies in Language Change, vol. 11, Berlin: DeGruyter Mouton, pp. 185–244, ISBN 978-1-61451-058-1
• François, Alexandre (2014), "Trees, Waves and Linkages: Models of Language Diversification", in Bowern, Claire; Evans, Bethwyn (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics, London: Routledge, pp. 161–189, ISBN 978-0-41552-789-7
• François, Alexandre (2015). "The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages" (PDF). In Alexandre François; Sébastien Lacrampe; Michael Franjieh; Stefan Schnell (eds.). The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. pp. 137–195. ISBN 978-1-922185-23-5.
• François, Alexandre (2016), "The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu" (PDF), in Pozdniakov, Konstantin (ed.), Comparatisme et reconstruction : tendances actuelles, Faits de Langues, vol. 47, Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 25–60
• François, Alexandre (2017). "Méthode comparative et chaînages linguistiques: Pour un modèle diffusionniste en généalogie des langues" (PDF). In Jean-Léo Léonard (ed.). Diffusion : implantation, affinités, convergence. Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris. Louvain: Peeters. pp. 43–82.
• Kalyan, Siva; François, Alexandre (2018), "Freeing the Comparative Method from the tree model: A framework for Historical Glottometry" (PDF), in Kikusawa, Ritsuko; Reid, Laurie (eds.), Let's talk about trees: Tackling Problems in Representing Phylogenic Relationships among Languages, Senri Ethnological Studies, 98, Ōsaka: National Museum of Ethnology, pp. 59–89

External links

• Map and information on the 17 Torres & Banks languages.