melanesian-polynesian

Updated: April 30, 2025

The racial and cultural division, however, particularly the former, are of major importance, while the linguistic division is of quite minor significance, the Polynesian languages constituting hardly more than a special dialectic subdivision of the combined Melanesian-Polynesian group. Still clearer-cut coincidences of cleavage may be found.

Edward Sapir - Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech