Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

Dictionary of language and linguistics 828OceanicCollective term for the languages of the southeast Asian islands, New Guinea, Australia,and the Pacific Islands. The most important language groups in this area are Malayo-Polynesian, which is spread over nearly the entire Pacific, the southeast Asian islands,and Madagascar and is probably related to the southeast Asian languages, the Australianlanguages, and the Papuan languages, the numerous language families in New Guineaand the nearby islands, whose genetic affiliation has not yet been completely explained.Research on this group was first focused on the Malayo-Polynesian languages, while theimportant investigation of the Australian and Papuan languages was not seriously begununtil the 1960s. ( also dialect geography)ReferencesHolmer, N.M. 1966. Oceanic semantics: a study in the framing of concepts in the native languagesof Australia and Oceania. Uppsala.Wurm, S.A. 1982. Papuan languages of Oceania. Tübingen.BibliographyKleineberger, H.R. 1957. Bibliography of Oceanic linguistics. London.Oceanic Linguistics.Journal