Central Malayo-Polynesian languages

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Central Malayo-Polynesian
Geographic
distribution:		 Indonesia
Genetic
classification:		 Austronesian
 Malayo-Polynesian (MP)
  Nuclear MP
   Central-Eastern MP
    Central Malayo-Polynesian
Subdivisions:
Ten branches

The Central Malayo-Polynesian (CMP) linkage are a branch of Austronesian languages. The are spoken in the Lesser Sunda Islands and the Moluccas of the Banda Sea, in an area corresponding closely to the Indonesian provinces of East Nusa Tenggara and Maluku and the nation of East Timor (excepting the Papuan languages of Timor and nearby islands), but with the Bima language extending to the eastern half of Sumbawa Island in the province of West Nusa Tenggara and the Sula languages of the Sula archipelago in the southwest corner of the province of North Maluku. The principal islands in this region are Sumbawa, Sumba, Flores, Timor, Buru, and Seram. The numerically most important languages are Manggarai of western Flores and Tetum, the national language of East Timor.

The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages are for the most part poorly attested, and it is not certain that they constitute a coherent group. Many of the proposed defining features are not found in the geographic extremes of the area. Therefore some linguists have questioned the validity of the family, while others consider it a linkage; a conservative classification might consider CMP to be a convenient term for the Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages which are not Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages (Grimes 1991). Indeed, languages in the east of Flores and nearby islands, especially the island of Savu, have large amounts of apparently non-Austronesian basic vocabulary, and it is possible that they will prove to not be Austronesian at all (Würm 1975).

[edit] Language groups

The languages groups considered Central Malayo-Polynesian are as follows, counter-clockwise from Sumbawa to Buru. Some of these may be geographic groupings.

  • Bima-Sumba languages (Sumbawa and Sumba)
  • Timor languages (Flores and Timor)
  • West Damar languages
  • Babar languages
  • Southeast Maluku languages
  • Teor and Kur
  • Aru languages (Aru)
  • Kowiai (off the coast of the Bomberai Peninsula of New Guinea)
  • North Bomberai languages (off the coast of the Bomberai Peninsula)
  • Central Maluku languages
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