Central Vanuatu languages

Central Vanuatu
Shepherds–North Efate
Geographic distribution:	Vanuatu
Linguistic classification:	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic Northeast Vanuatu – Banks Islands (Clark 2009) Epi–Efate (Ross et al. 2002) Central Vanuatu
Glottolog:	None

The languages of the Central Vanuatu family of the Efate Islands are part of the Southern Oceanic languages. The language are spoken in Shefa Province in central Vanuatu on the islands of Efate and the many small islands of the Shepherd Islands.

The main difference in recent classifications is the position of the languages within Oceanic and whether to include the South Efate language of the capital, Port Vila.

Languages

Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002) include just two languages:^[1]

• Namakir (Makura language, Shepherds Islands )
• Nakanamanga (North Efate language, North Efate)

Clark (2009) includes South Efate:^[2]

• Namakir (Namakura)
• Efate: South Efate, North Efate, Eton, Lelepa

(Ross et al. had counted Eton and Lelepa as dialects of the other languages.)

According to Thieberger, Efatese is an artificial mixture of the languages of Efate.

References

1. Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. 2002. The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.
2. Clark, Ross. 2009. *Leo Tuai: A comparative lexical study of North and Central Vanuatu languages. Canberra ACT.: Pacific Linguistics (Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University).