| Proto-Oceanic | |
|---|---|
| POc | |
| Reconstruction of | Oceanic languages |
| Region | Bismarck Archipelago |
| Era | ca. late 3rd millennium BCE |
Reconstructed ancestors | |
| Lower-order reconstructions | |
Proto-Oceanic (abbreviated as POc) is a proto-language that historical linguists since Otto Dempwolff have reconstructed as the hypothetical common ancestor of the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Oceanic is a descendant of the Proto-Austronesian language (PAN), the common ancestor of the Austronesian languages.
Proto-Oceanic was probably spoken around the late 3rd millennium BCE in the Bismarck Archipelago, east of Papua New Guinea.[1] Archaeologists and linguists currently agree that its community more or less coincides with the Lapita culture.