Around 1,000 languages are spoken in Oceania and classifying them is fraught with difficulties. By way of summary three groups can be differentiated: 

• the Austronesian languages
• the non-Austronesian languages of Papua New Guinea 
• the languages of Australia

Some theories claim that the first migrations came from Africa and reached the islands of Papua and Australia. Based on this, some authors put forward a family of Australian languages and another one of Indo-Pacific languages which would also include Tasmanian, now extinct, and the Andamanese languages.

The Austronesian languages, divided into the Melanesian, Polynesian and Micronesian sub-groups, are scattered mainly around Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia and New Zealand. Thus examples can be found from Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and Hawaii (Hawaiian) to New Zealand (Maori). Malagasy, a language spoken in Madagascar, is also included in the Austronesian family.

This classification reflects the gradual occupation of generally unpopulated islands. The relation between the Austronesian languages was noticed as early as Captain Cook’s first voyages. 

The non-Austronesian languages of Papua New Guinea are still little known. Even though some authors have linked them with Tasmanian and the Andamanese languages, others believe that not even an internal relation can be demonstrated. Members of this group include Kâte, which was the lingua franca of a range of groups before the expansion of Tok Pisin, and Dano, known as one of the few languages in the world with just two terms to designate colours.

In the case of the languages of Australia, only around 200 of the approximately 750 languages which were spoken on the island when Europeans arrived survive today, many of which have only their last remaining speakers. 

In spite of this background, the languages of Oceania have not been able to stand up to the pressure of colonisation and it is the part of the world where the largest number of indigenous languages is disappearing. One of the few exceptions is Samoan, the official language of Samoa and spoken by some 130,000 people.  

An extremely strange case is that of a language called beach-la-mar, a mixture of English, French, Spanish and a number of indigenous languages. It is used as a bridge in the non-French speaking part of the Pacific and even has a dictionary and literature. 

French and English are official in virtually all the states of Oceania. Apart from Vanuatu, whose official languages are English, French and Bislama, and New Caledonia and French Polynesia, where the official language is French, the official language in a large number of the states in Oceania is English. 

Japanese, Chinese and Hindi were also introduced into a number of places in Oceania such as Hawaii, where Chinese and Japanese are still spoken, and Fiji, where Hindi speakers can still be found.  

In the case of the languages of Papua New Guinea, the state with the greatest linguistic diversity in the world, the choice of Tok Pisin as the official language would appear to be a threat to the other languages in the area.

Some words from the languages of Oceania have been widely spread through English. They include ukulele (Hawaiian), taboo and tattoo (Tongan) and kiwi (Maori). The Australian languages have provided boomerang, which was originally the name of a local ethnic group, and also the names of some animals such as dingo, koala and kangaroo.