Proto-Oceanic was probably spoken about 4200 years ago, in the Bismarck Archipelago, east of Papua New Guinea. Archaeologists and linguists currently agree that the POc-speaking community more or less coincides with the Lapitacivilization.
The methodology of comparative linguistics, together with the relative homogeneity of Oceanic languages, make it possible to reconstruct with reasonable certainty the principal linguistic properties of their common ancestor, Proto-Oceanic. Like all scientific hypotheses, these reconstructions must be understood as obviously reflecting the state of science at a particular moment in time; in particular, it must be noted that the detail of these reconstructions is still the object of much discussion among Oceanist scholars.
Phonology
The phonology of POc can be reconstructed with reasonable certainty[1].
Proto-Oceanic had 5 vowels: *i, *e, *a, *o, *u, with no length contrast. It also possessed 23 consonants, reconstructed as follows:
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