Languages in Contact: An Exploration of Stability and Change in the Solomon Islands

Abstract

The Papuan-Oceanic world has long been considered a hotbed of contact-induced linguistic change, and there have been a number of studies of deep linguistic influence between Papuan and Oceanic languages (like those by Thurston and Ross). This paper assesses the degree and type of contact-induced language change in the Solomon Islands, between the four Papuan languages—Bilua (spoken on Vella Lavella, Western Province), Touo (spoken on southern Rendova, Western Province), Savosavo (spoken on Savo Island, Central Province), and Lavukaleve (spoken in the Russell Islands, Central Province)—and their Oceanic neighbors. First, a claim is made for a degree of cultural homogeneity for Papuan and Oceanic-speaking populations within the Solomons. Second, lexical and grammatical borrowing are considered in turn, in an attempt to identify which elements in each of the four Papuan languages may have an origin in Oceanic languages—and indeed which elements in Oceanic languages may have their origin in Papuan languages. Finally, an assessment is made of the degrees of stability versus change in the Papuan and Oceanic languages of the Solomon Islands.

New Arguments for a Central Solomons Family Based on Evidence from Pronominal Morphemes

“…This article has concentrated only on the GPN morphemes, but other aspects of grammar might provide more arguments in favor of the existence of the family and support my branching proposal or change it for a better grounded one. The extensive grammars of Savosavo (Wegener 2012), Lavukaleve (Terrill 2003), and Bilua (Obata 2003) provide invaluable material for grammatical comparison. More documentation on Touo grammar would undoubtedly expand our knowledge on the relations among the Central Solomons languages.…”

“…Three of these languages (Savosavo, Lavukaleve, and Bilua) have extensive descriptive grammars (Wegener 2012, Terrill 2003, and Obata 2003. The information on Touo is much scarcer.…”

“…First of all, it is important to consider that Ross did not have access to most of the data that I have used in this article. The grammars of Savosavo (Wegener 2012), Lavukaleve (Terrill 2003), and Bilua (Obata 2003) had not been published at that time. For Touo, I have used the data in Todd (1975), to which Ross had access, but he did not have access to the phonological description of this language in Dunn and Terrill (2003), which I have used.…”

“…All 1NSG.EXC morphemes are formed with e. Therefore, e marks exclusivity. Terrill (2003). Explanations for column headings are: PRON: Pronouns (Terrill 2003:170).…”