Torres–Banks languages

François (2011) recognizes 17 languages spoken by 9,400 people in 50 villages, including 16 living (3 of which are moribund) and one extinct language.^[1]

The 17 languages, ranked from northwest to southeast, are:^[1]: 181

Language	Number of speakers	ISO 639-3 code	Island(s) spoken
Hiw	280	[hiw]	Hiw
Lo-Toga	580	[lht]	Tegua, Lo, Toga
Lehali	200	[tql]	Ureparapara
Löyöp	240	[urr]	Ureparapara
Volow	extinct	[mlv]	Mota Lava
Mwotlap	2100	[mlv]	Mota Lava
Lemerig	2 (moribund)	[lrz]	Vanua Lava
Vera'a	500	[vra]	Vanua Lava
Vurës	2000	[msn]	Vanua Lava
Mwesen	10 (moribund)	[msn]	Vanua Lava
Mota	750	[mtt]	Mota
Nume	700	[tgs]	Gaua
Dorig	300	[wwo]	Gaua
Koro	250	[krf]	Gaua
Olrat	3 (moribund)	[olr]	Gaua
Lakon	800	[lkn]	Gaua
Mwerlap	1100	[mrm]	Merelava

A. François has published several studies comparing various features of the Torres–Banks languages:

• François (2005): Inventories of vowel systems, and their historical development;
• François (2007): Systems of noun articles, and their historical development;
• François (2009): How several languages grammaticalized a set of light personal pronouns into markers for “aorist” aspect;
• François (2011): How Torres–Banks languages tend to show structural isomorphism, yet lexical diversity;
• François (2013): Etymological reconstruction of spiritual terms in Torres–Banks languages;
• François (2015): Systems of geocentric space directionals, and their historical development;
• François (2016): Historical morphology of personal pronouns.

François (2012) is a sociolinguistic study of the area.

The internal structure of the Torres–Banks linkage was assessed based on the Comparative method, and presented in the framework of historical glottometry (François 2014, 2017; Kalyan & François 2018).

Kalyan & François (2018: 81) identified the following best-supported subgroups (in decreasing order of genealogical closeness):

• Mwotlap – Volow
• Hiw – Lo-Toga
• Vurës – Mwesen
• Lemerig – Vera'a
• Koro – Olrat – Lakon
• Dorig – Koro – Olrat – Lakon
• Olrat – Lakon
• Lehali – Löyöp – Mwotlap – Volow
• 15 Banks languages together (Lehali – Löyöp – Mwotlap – Volow – Lemerig – Vera'a – Vurës – Mwesen – Mota – Nume – Dorig – Koro – Olrat – Lakon – Mwerlap)

It is possible that the strict common ancestor of any two members of the Torres–Banks linkage is Proto-Oceanic itself.^[1]: 188 Evidence of this is found in the irregular preservation of final consonants in Lakon (via a now-lost paragogic vowel) in some words, consonants which were lost in most other languages.^{[2][1]: 200}

The common ancestor of all Torres-Banks languages is called Proto-Torres–Banks, viewed here as a mutually-intelligible chain of dialects within the Torres and Banks islands.^[1]: 190

• Codrington, Robert Henry (1885). The Melanesian Languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press (full text from the Internet Archive).
• François, Alexandre (2005), "Unraveling the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF), Oceanic Linguistics, 44 (2): 443–504, doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0034
• —— (2007), "Noun articles in Torres and Banks languages: Conservation and innovation" (PDF), in Siegel, Jeff; Lynch, John; Eades, Diana (eds.), Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley, Creole Language Library 30, Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 313–326
• —— (2009), "Verbal aspect and personal pronouns: The history of aorist markers in north Vanuatu" (PDF), in Pawley, Andrew; Adelaar, Alexander (eds.), Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: A festschrift for Bob Blust, vol. 601, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, pp. 179–195
• —— (2011), "Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence" (PDF), Journal of Historical Linguistics, 1 (2): 175–246, doi:10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra, hdl:1885/29283.
• —— (2012), "The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF), International Journal of the Sociology of Language (214): 85–110, doi:10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022
• —— (2013), "Shadows of bygone lives: The histories of spiritual words in northern Vanuatu" (PDF), in Mailhammer, Robert (ed.), Lexical and structural etymology: Beyond word histories, Studies in Language Change, vol. 11, Berlin: DeGruyter Mouton, pp. 185–244, ISBN 978-1-61451-058-1
• —— (2014), "Trees, Waves and Linkages: Models of Language Diversification", in Bowern, Claire; Evans, Bethwyn (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics, London: Routledge, pp. 161–189, ISBN 978-0-41552-789-7
• —— (2015). "The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages" (PDF). In Alexandre François; Sébastien Lacrampe; Michael Franjieh; Stefan Schnell (eds.). The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. pp. 137–195. hdl:1885/14819. ISBN 978-1-922185-23-5.
• —— (2016), "The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu" (PDF), in Pozdniakov, Konstantin (ed.), Comparatisme et reconstruction : tendances actuelles, Faits de Langues, vol. 47, Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 25–60
• —— (2017). "Méthode comparative et chaînages linguistiques: Pour un modèle diffusionniste en généalogie des langues" (PDF). In Jean-Léo Léonard (ed.). Diffusion : implantation, affinités, convergence. Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris. Louvain: Peeters. pp. 43–82.
• Kalyan, Siva; François, Alexandre (2018), "Freeing the Comparative Method from the tree model: A framework for Historical Glottometry" (PDF), in Kikusawa, Ritsuko; Reid, Laurie (eds.), Let's talk about trees: Tackling Problems in Representing Phylogenic Relationships among Languages, Senri Ethnological Studies, 98, Ōsaka: National Museum of Ethnology, pp. 59–89
• Ray, Sidney Herbert (1926). A Comparative Study of the Melanesian Island Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. xvi+598. ISBN 9781107682023.

• Map and information on the 17 Torres & Banks languages.