Alternate Proposal
The North and Central Vanuatu linkage, established by the comparative method, partly coincides with the Northern Vanuatu branch of the Austronesian tree, as determined by lexical cognacy rates. A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database, supports the following classification. Each node is fully supported, except for Santo–Malekula, which was given a 90% probability.
- Central Vanuatu
- Paama–Ambrym
- Orkon
- Paamese and Southeast Ambrym
- East Vanuatu (reduced)
- Santo–Malekula
The Paama–Ambrym languages have been separated from the East Vanuatu branch. The Epi languages were not covered by the 2008 analysis, but are traditionally classified with the North Vanuatu languages.
The results of this analysis, which are based exclusively on rates of cognacy in the lexicon, are not necessarily supported by the traditional comparative method, and must be taken with caution.
Read more about this topic: North And Central Vanuatu Languages
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