than a hundred indigenous languages: a recent count lists 138. Among them, three became extinct in recent decades. Many are named after the island they are spoken on, though some of the larger islands have several different languages. Espiritu Santo and Malakula are linguistically the most diverse, with about two dozen languages each. Some language names refer to networks of dialects rather than unified languages. Uripiv, for example, is a dialect continuum spoken across several islands in Malampa Province. In such cases, the decision as to how many languages should be counted is notoriously difficult, and sometimes the object of controversy. The number of 112 listed below may differ from other counts proposed in the literature, depending partly on these difficulties. All indigenous languages of Vanuatu are Oceanic. Three are Polynesian languages of the Futunic group: Emae, Mele-Fila and Futuna-Aniwa. The remaining languages belong to these three groups of the Southern Oceanic branch of Oceanic: North Vanuatu Central Vanuatu South Vanuatu Ethnologue Below is the Ethnologue's list of most of the indigenous languages of Vanuatu, which are still spoken or were until recently. It provides links to an OLAC list of media resources on the language. Tip: Click on the column title to change the sort order. François et al. (2015) The following list of 138 Vanuatu languages is from François et al. (2015:18-21). Notes References . . Further reading Tryon, D.T. New Hebrides languages: An internal classification. C-50, vi + 550 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1976. Tryon, D.T. "The Languages of the New Hebrides: Internal and External Relationships". In Wurm, S.A. and Carrington, L. editors, Second International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics: Proceedings. C-61:877-902. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1978. Tryon, D.T. and Gly, R. ''Gazetteer of New Hebrides place names/Nomenclature des noms geographiques des Nouvelles-Hebrides. D-15, xxxvi + 188 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1979. External links Vanuatu in Linguistic map of Vanuatu (source: François et al. 2015).