Central Solomon languages
# Central Solomon languages

The Central Solomon languages are the four Papuan languages spoken in the state of Solomon Islands.

The four languages are, listed from northwest to southeast,

* Bilua of Vella Lavella and Ghizo islands,
* Touo (also known as Baniata) of Rendova Island,
* Lavukaleve of the Russell Islands, and
* Savosavo of Savo Island.

## Classification

The four Central Solomon languages were identified as a family by Wilhelm Schmidt in 1908. The languages are at best distantly related, and evidence for their relationship is meager. Dunn and Terrill (2012) argue that the lexical evidence vanishes when Oceanic loanwords are excluded. Ross (2005) and Pedrós (2015), however, accept a connection, based on similarities among pronouns and other grammatical forms.

Pedrós (2015) suggests, tentatively, that the branching of the family is as follows.

### Central Solomons

* Lavukaleve–Touo
* Savosavo–Bilua

Savosavo and Bilua, despite being the most distant languages geographically, both split more recently than Lavukaleve and Touo according to Pedrós.

Palmer (2018) regards the evidence for Central Solomons as tentative but promising.

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) grouped Touo, Savosavo, and Bilua together. Lavukaleve was not included. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

## Pronoun reconstructions

Pedrós (2015) argues for the existence of the family through comparison of pronouns and other gender, person and number morphemes and based on the existence of a common syncretism between 2nd person nonsingular and inclusive. He performs an internal reconstruction for the pronominal morphemes of each language and then proposes a reconstruction of some of the pronouns of the claimed family. The reconstructions are the following:

| | 1 singular | 2 singular | inclusive/ 2 non-singular | 1 exclusive |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Pre-Savosavo | *a-ɲi | *no | *me | a- |
| Pre-Touo | e̤ | noe | *me | e̤- |
| Pre-Lavukaleve | *ŋai | *ŋo | *me | e |
| Pre-Bilua | *ani/*aŋai | *ŋo | me | e- |
| Proto-Central Solomons | *ani/*aŋai | *ŋo | *me | *e |

## Numerals

Central Solomon numerals from Pedrós (2015):

    numeralSavosavoTouoLavukaleveBilua 1 ˈela, ˈpade / paaɺo / azoˈtelakom, ˈtelakoˈomadeu, ˈmadeu 2 ˈedoe̤ɺiˈlelemal, ˈlelaol, ˈlelaɰel, ˈlemalˈomuga, ˈmuga 3 iˈɰiβa / iˈɰiahieˈeŋaˈzouke, ke 4 ˈaɰaβaa̤vonunˈariku 5 ˈarasoduˈsieˈsike, ke

As the comparisons indicate, lexical evidence for the relatedness of the four languages is limited.

## Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from Tryon & Hackman (1982), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database. The Savosavo data is from Claudia Wegener's field notes.

    glossLavukaleveMbaniata (Lokuru dialect)Mbilua (Ndovele dialect)Savosavo head vatuuɔlezubatu hair memeazufutouluta; sivuɰa ear hovulōŋgototaliŋatagalu eye lemimberɔvilunito nose sisiemɔŋgameɲoko tooth neonānetakanale tongue letānlleñolapi leg tau furimeɔekiti louse kea; lailisa; vutusipi; tiŋgaudole dog mitakeusiesielemisu bird malaɣulmānozombiaŋambiaŋakosu egg keruvāndenatɔrurukolei; si blood ravuvondaraɰabu bone sosokiominupizatovolo skin keutzuɔnatupukorakora breast ɔfususususususu man alifinɔzɔmambatada woman airaŋgoherekoadaki sky totoāsuziaauoka moon kuaīndikambosokuɰe water lafifiɔnĵupiva fire lakehirɔuzakeda stone mbeko; vekohɛŋgalandokato road, path lakeekevekeva name laŋininiŋinini eat eu; eui; ouneazafevuatol-ou; samu one dom; tetelomāroŋo; thufimandeuela; pade two lelal; lemalēriomuŋgaedo

## Syntax

All Central Solomon languages have SOV word order except for Bilua, which has SVO word order due to Oceanic influence.

