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Language Distribution Map for New Caledonia
people constitute a significant sized minority of the people in New Caledonia, 37%. French
is the main language spoken (Gall and Hobby, 2007).
Language Distribution Map in New Caledonia
In New Caledonia, there are 38 living languages. 36 of them or 92.30% are members
of the Austronesian language family. Three main geolinguistic areas can be distinguished.
In the northern half of the main island we find the Northern New Caledonian subgroup; in
the southern half there is the Southern New Caledonian subgroup; and in the islands to the
north and east there is the Loyalty Islands subgroup which is thought to have originated
from East Polynesian Fijian. Smaller subgroups include Haekic, an isolate in the Northern
Caledonia area, while near Noumea, the capital city, Tayo Creole and New Caledonian
Javanese are spoken.
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