The Southern Oceanic languages are a linkage of Oceanic languages spoken in Vanuatu and New Caledonia. It was proposed by Lynch, Ross, and Crowley in 2002 and supported by later studies. They consider it to be a linkage rather than a language group with a clearly defined internal nested structure. Classification Clark (2009) groups the North Vanuatu and Central Vanuatu languages together into a North–Central Vanuatu (NCV) group and also reconstructs Proto-North–Central Vanuatu, but this is not accepted by Lynch (2018). In addition to the Reefs – Santa Cruz languages and the Meso-Melanesian languages of the western Solomon Islands, Geraghty (2017) notes that many Southern Oceanic languages are often lexically and typologically aberrant languages likely with Papuan substrata – particularly the Santo, Malakula, South Vanuatu, and New Caledonian languages, and perhaps also some Central Vanuatu languages of Ambrym and Efate. Nevertheless, languages in the eastern Solomon Islands, including Guadalcanal, Malaita, Makira, and adjacent islands, are much more conservative, and not as lexicaly aberrant as the Temotu languages and languages of the western Solomons. Languages Following Clark (2009) and Glottolog 4.0, four major groups can be delineated, which are North Vanuatu, Central Vanuatu, South Vanuatu, and New Caledonian. All four groups are linkages. North Vanuatu Torres–Banks Espiritu Santo (various others) Central Vanuatu Malakula (various others) South Vanuatu New Caledonian Lynch (1995) Lynch (1995) tentatively grouped the languages as follows: Banks–Torres family Northwest Santo family Southwest Santo family Sakao East Santo family Ambae–Maewo family Nuclear Southern Oceanic linkage Central Vanuatu linkage Malekula Coastal Malekula Interior Pentecost Ambrym–Paama Epi–Efate Epi Shepherds–North Efate South Efate – Southern Melanesian linkage South Efate dialect network Southern Melanesian family Southern Vanuatu family New Caledonian family The non-nuclear branches are subsumed under Northern Vanuatu. Ross, Pawley, & Osmond (2016) Ross, Pawley, & Osmond (2016) propose the following internal classification for Southern Oceanic. Southern Oceanic linkage North Vanuatu linkage Nuclear Southern Oceanic linkage Central Vanuatu linkage South Vanuatu languages Loyalties-New Caledonia languages See also Languages of Vanuatu References Lynch, John, and Terry Crowley. 2001. Languages of Vanuatu: A New Survey and Bibliography. (Pacific Linguistics, 517.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. 2002. The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. Clark, Ross. 2009. *Leo Tuai: A comparative lexical study of North and Central Vanuatu languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics (Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National