North and Central Vanuatu languages constitute a linkage

Linkage (linguistics)

In linguistics, a linkage is a group of undoubtedly related languages for which no proto-language can be reconstructed. Malcolm Ross, who coined the term, defined it as “a group of communalects which have arisen by dialect differentiation” ....

 within the Oceanic group, with about 95 languages. It is considered a branch of the Southern Oceanic languages

Southern Oceanic languages

The Southern Oceanic languages are a branch of Oceanic proposed by Lynch, Ross, and Crowley in 2002 and supported by later analysis.-Composition:A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database supports the following classification...

.

Components

The internal structure of the linkage has been proposed as follows:

• East Santo
  • North East Santo languages
  • South East Santo languages
• Malekula Interior
  Malekula Interior languages
  -Languages:The Malekula languages have been divided into interior and coastal groups. However, this classification is not well supported. According to a 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database, the interior and some of the coastal languages, such as Nahavaq, are related as a...
  
  
  • Labo
    Labo language
    Labo may be:* Labo Phowa language* Labo languge...
    
    
  • Malekula Central languages
    Malekula Central languages
    The family of Malekula Central languages is a subgroup of the Malekula Interior languages. It consists of 8 languages.-Languages:The languages are,*Big Nambas*Lingarak*Larevat*Litzlitz *Maragus*Nasarian*Katbol *Vinmavis *Uripiv...
    
    
  • Small Nambas languages
    Small Nambas languages
    The family of Small Nambas languages is a subgroup of the Malekula Interior languages. It consists of 3 languages:...
    
    
• Northeast Vanuatu – Banks Islands
  • Central Vanuatu languages
    Central Vanuatu languages
    The languages of the Central Vanuatu family belong to the Nuclear Southern Oceanic language family. There are half a dozen languages, all spoken in the province of Shefa, central Vanuatu, on the islands of Epi, Éfaté, and the many small islands of the Shepherds Group.The primary division is between...
    
    
  • East Vanuatu languages
    East Vanuatu languages
    -Languages:A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database included seven East Vanuatu languages. Three, the Paama–Ambrym languages, were found to form a separate family...
    
    
  • Epi languages
    Epi languages
    -Components:*Bieria–Maii: Bieria, Maii*Lamenu–Baki**Baki–Bierebo: Baki, Bierebo**Lamenu–Lewo: Lamenu, Lewo...
    
    
  • Malekula Coastal languages
  • West Santo languages

Alternate proposal

The North and Central Vanuatu linkage, established by the comparative method

Comparative method

In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor, as opposed to the method of internal reconstruction, which analyzes the internal...

, partly coincides with the Northern Vanuatu branch of the Austronesian tree, as determined by lexical cognacy

Cognate

In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...

 rates. A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database, supports the following classification. Each node is fully supported, except for Santo–Malekula, which was given a 90% probability.

• Central Vanuatu
  Central Vanuatu languages
  The languages of the Central Vanuatu family belong to the Nuclear Southern Oceanic language family. There are half a dozen languages, all spoken in the province of Shefa, central Vanuatu, on the islands of Epi, Éfaté, and the many small islands of the Shepherds Group.The primary division is between...
  
  
• Paama–Ambrym
  • Orkon
  • Paamese
    Paama language
    The Paama language is the language of the island of Paama in Northern Vanuatu. There is no indigenous term for the language; however linguists have adopted the term Paamese to refer to it. Both a grammar and a dictionary of Paamese have been produced by Terry Crowley.-Classification:Paamese is an...
    
     and Southeast Ambrym
• East Vanuatu
  East Vanuatu languages
  -Languages:A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database included seven East Vanuatu languages. Three, the Paama–Ambrym languages, were found to form a separate family...
  
   (reduced)
• Santo–Malekula

The Paama–Ambrym languages have been separated from the East Vanuatu

East Vanuatu languages

-Languages:A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database included seven East Vanuatu languages. Three, the Paama–Ambrym languages, were found to form a separate family...

 branch. The Epi languages

Epi languages

-Components:*Bieria–Maii: Bieria, Maii*Lamenu–Baki**Baki–Bierebo: Baki, Bierebo**Lamenu–Lewo: Lamenu, Lewo...

 were not covered by the 2008 analysis, but are traditionally classified with the North Vanuatu languages.

The results of this analysis, which are based exclusively on rates of cognacy in the lexicon

Lexicon

In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...

, are not necessarily supported by the traditional comparative method

Comparative method

In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor, as opposed to the method of internal reconstruction, which analyzes the internal...

, and must be taken with caution.