Melanesian languages, languages belonging to the Eastern, or Oceanic, branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family and spoken in the islands of Melanesia. The Melanesian languages, of which there are about 400, are most closely related to the languages of Micronesia and Polynesia; most have a few hundred or a few thousand speakers, and the total number of speakers of Melanesian tongues is fewer than 1,000,000. With few exceptions, these languages are only slightly documented.
The most important Melanesian language is Fijian, spoken by about 334,000 persons and widely used in Fiji in newspapers, in broadcasting, and in government publications. Other Melanesian languages of note are Motu, in the form of Police Motu (a pidgin), used widely as a lingua franca in Papua New Guinea; Roviana, the language of the Methodist Mission in the Solomon Islands; Bambatana, a literary language used by the Methodists on Choiseul Island; Bugotu, a lingua franca on Santa Isabel (Ysabel Island); Tolai, a widely used missionary language in New Britain and New Ireland; Yabêm and Graged, lingua francas of the Lutheran Mission in the Madang region of Papua New Guinea; and Mota, a widely used lingua franca and literary language of the Melanesian Mission in northern Melanesia in the 19th century.