Chapter 3. The Prehistory of Oceanic Languages: A Current View

The paper sketches the linguistic comparative method and reports on current results of its application to the Oceanic group of Austronesian languages. We give a brief account of the culture of Proto-Oceanic speakers as it is revealed by language, then outline our present view of Oceanic subgrouping, explaining what this implies about the location of Proto-Oceanic and the dispersion of Oceanic speakers into the Pacific. We examine patterns discernible in this dispersion, and address the question of why the languages of Melanesia have changed more than others