Between 60 and 70 languages are spoken in the Solomon Islands Archipelago which covers a broader area than the nation state of

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

, and includes the island of Bougainville, which is an autonomous province of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

(PNG). The lingua franca of the archipelago is Pidgin, and the official language in both countries is English.

Language families

Most of the languages in the Solomon Islands are Austronesian languages. The Central Solomon languages such as Lavukaleve constitute an independent family. Two other language families are represented on Bougainville, which is geographically part of the Solomon Islands, if not within the national boundaries. The status of the Reefs – Santa Cruz languages were once thought to be non-Austronesian, but further research found them to be divergent Austronesian languages. The neighbouring languages of

Vanikoro Vanikoro (sometimes wrongly named ''Vanikolo'') is an island in the Santa Cruz group, located to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group. It is part of the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands. The name ''Vanikoro'' is always used as thou ...

are also heavily relexified Austronesian languages. An indigenous sign language, Rennellese Sign Language, has gone extinct.

Languages of the Solomon Islands archipelago

''Italics indicate that a language is extinct.''

Language families

Languages of the Solomon Islands archipelago

Notes

Further reading