Between 60 and 70 languages are spoken in the
Solomon Islands Archipelago
The Solomon Islands (archipelago) is an island group in the western South Pacific Ocean, north-east of Australia. The archipelago is in the Melanesian subregion and bioregion of Oceania and forms the eastern boundary of the Solomon Sea. The ...
which covers a broader area than the nation state of
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...
, and includes the island of
Bougainville, which is an
of
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
(PNG). The
lingua franca of the archipelago is
Pidgin, and the official language in both countries is
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
.
Language families
Most of the languages in the Solomon Islands are
Austronesian languages. The
Central Solomon languages such as
Lavukaleve constitute an independent family.
Two other language families are represented on
Bougainville, which is geographically part of the Solomon Islands, if not within the national boundaries.
The status of the
Reefs – Santa Cruz languages were once thought to be non-Austronesian, but further research found them to be divergent Austronesian languages. The neighbouring languages of
Vanikoro
Vanikoro (sometimes wrongly named ''Vanikolo'') is an island in the Santa Cruz group, located to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group. It is part of the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands.
The name ''Vanikoro'' is always used as thou ...
are also heavily relexified Austronesian languages.
An indigenous sign language,
Rennellese Sign Language
Rennellese Sign Language is an extinct form of home sign documented from Rennell Island
Rennell Island, locally known as Mugaba, is the main island of two inhabited islands that make up the Rennell and Bellona Province in the nation state of ...
, has gone extinct.
Languages of the Solomon Islands archipelago
''Italics indicate that a language is extinct.''
Notes
Further reading
*
*
*
**Data set derived from Tryon & Hackman (1983):
Greenhill, Simon, & Robert Forkel. (2019). lexibank/tryonsolomon: Solomon Islands Languages (Version v3.0). Zenodo.
{{Oceania in topic, Languages of