Pacific Languages

Lynch, John (1998). Pacific Languages. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 0-8248-1898-9.

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Abstract: Almost one-quarter of the world's languages are (or were) spoken in the Pacific, making it linguistically the most complex region in the world. Although numerous technical books on groups of Pacific or Australian languages have been published, and descriptions of individual languages are available, until now there has been no single book that attempts a wide regional coverage for a general audience. Pacific Languages introduces readers to the grammatical features of Oceanic, Papuan, and Australian languages as well as to the semantic structures of these languages. For readers without a formal linguistic background, a brief introduction to descriptive linguistics is provided. In addition to describing the structure of Pacific languages, this volume places them in their historical and geographical context, discusses the linguistic evidence for the settlement of the Pacific, and speculates on the reason for the region's many languages. Linguistics: some basic concepts -- The languages of the Pacific -- The history of the Austronesian languages -- The history of the Papuan and Australian languages -- Sound systems -- Oceanic languages: grammatical overview -- Papuan languages: grammatical overview -- Australian languages: grammatical overview -- Languages in contact -- Pidgins, creoles, and Koines -- Language, society, and culture in the Pacific context-- Conclusion. Ideas about Pacific language.

Extra details:

DOI: 10.2307/3623400
CorpusID: 154223065
MAG: 1992779059
OpenAlex: W1992779059