Linguistics and the prehistory of the South‐Western pacific

number of different research tools have been utilized. Linguistics has always occupied an important place amongst these tools. Its findings are of great importance in themselves, but they gather additional weight if they can be used to corroborate findings arrived at by other disciplines, or if hypotheses put forward on linguistic grounds appear tenable in the light of conclusions reached by such other disciplines. One of the most important areas for the understanding of the migrations of man into Oceania is the region of the South-western Pacific known as Island Melanesia, that is the islands stretching from the New Britain archi pelago across the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides to New Caledonia, and including Fiji. With the exception of some areas in the New Britain archipelago and the Solomon Islands, where Papuan languages are spoken, this region is occupied by a large number of Austronesian (also known as Malayo-Polynesian) languages, which have until recently been collectively designated as Melanesian languages. These are spoken by a dark-skinned population racially similar to speakers of Papuan languages. To a varying degree a regionally defined admixture of a race with lighter skin and Poly nesian characteristics is observable amongst the speakers of these Melanesian languages, and Polynesian languages are located in a few fringe areas of that region. At the same time, such Melanesian languages are also found along considerable portions of the northern and south-eastern coasts of New Guinea, with the highest concentration in the south-eastern extremity of the huge island. These Melanesian languages constitute, in terms of the area occupied by them, only a comparatively small portion of the overall Austronesian lang uage area, which stretches from Madagascar, parts of South-east Asia and Indonesia, to Formosa in the north and across the Pacific to Hawaii and Easter Island in the east. The Austronesian languages are interrelated and have, traditionally, been subdivided into Indonesian, Micronesian, Mela nesian and Polynesian languages, but this classification, made partly on geographical grounds, has, especially recently, been subjected to serious criticism and is of doubtful validity. The speakers of Austronesian languages other than Melanesian are generally much more light-skinned that those of