actually be non-Austronesian are spoken in the Solomon Islands and New Britain (various Meso-Melanesian languages). Word order Word order in Oceanic languages is highly diverse, and is distributed in the following geographic regions (Lynch, Ross, & Crowley 2002:49). Subject–verb–object: Admiralty Islands, most of Markham Valley, Siasi Islands, most of New Britain, New Ireland, some parts of Bougainville Island, most parts of the southeast Solomon Islands, most parts of Vanuatu, some parts of New Caledonia, most of Micronesia Subject–object–verb: central and southeast Papua New Guinea, some parts of Markham Valley, Madang coast, Wewak coast, Sarmi coast, a few parts of Bougainville, some parts of New Britain Verb–subject–object: New Georgia, some parts of Santa Ysabel Island, much of Polynesia, Yap Verb–object–subject: Fijian language, Anejom language, Loyalty Islands, Kiribati, many parts of New Caledonia, Nggela Object-initial: only two, Äiwoo (object-verb-subject) and Tobati (object-subject-verb) Topic-prominent language: much of Bougainville Island, Choiseul Island, some parts of Santa Ysabel Island See also Wave model of language change Remote Oceanic languages References Bibliography Languages of Oceania