The over 200 Central–Eastern Oceanic languages form a branch of the Oceanic language family within the Austronesian languages.
Languages Traditional classifications have posited a Remote Oceanic branch within this family, but this was abandoned in Lynch et al. (2002), as no defining features could be found for such a group of languages. Southeast Solomonic Southern Oceanic linkage (non-Polynesian languages of Vanuatu and New Caledonia) Micronesian Central Pacific (Fijian dialects spoken in Fiji and Polynesian)
In 2007 Ross & Næss moved the Utupua-Vanikoro languages from Central-Eastern Oceanic to the newly established Temotu branch of Oceanic.
See also Remote Oceanic languages
References Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. (2002). The Oceanic Languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.