The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages (CMP) are a proposed branch in the

Malayo-Polynesian The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...

subgroup of the

Austronesian language family The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...

. The languages are spoken in the Lesser Sunda and

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonics, Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West ...

of the

Banda Sea The Banda Sea (, , ) is one of four seas that surround the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, connected to the Pacific Ocean, but surrounded by hundreds of islands, including Timor, as well as the Halmahera Sea, Halmahera and Ceram Seas. It is about ...

, in an area corresponding closely to the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n provinces of

East Nusa Tenggara East Nusa Tenggara (; ) is the southernmost province of Indonesia. It comprises the eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, facing the Indian Ocean in the south and the Flores Sea in the north, with a total land area of 47,238.07 km2. It cons ...

and Maluku and the nation of

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

(excepting the

Papuan languages The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply ...

Timor Timor (, , ) is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is Indonesia–Timor-Leste border, divided between the sovereign states of Timor-Leste in the eastern part and Indonesia in the ...

and nearby islands), but with the

Bima language The Bima language, or Bimanese (Bima: , Indonesian: ), is an Austronesian language spoken on the eastern half of Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, which it shares with speakers of the Sumbawa language. Bima territory includes the Sanggar Peninsula, ...

extending to the eastern half of

Sumbawa Sumbawa, is an Indonesian island, located in the middle of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain, with Lombok to the west, Flores to the east, and Sumba further to the southeast. Along with Lombok, it forms the province of West Nusa Tenggara, but th ...

Island in the province of

West Nusa Tenggara West Nusa Tenggara ( – NTB) is a provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It comprises the western portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, with the exception of Bali which is its own province. The area of this province is which consists of ...

and the Sula languages of the Sula archipelago in the southwest corner of the province of

North Maluku North Maluku (; ) is a province of Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the north, the Halmahera Sea to the east, the Molucca Sea to the west, and the Seram Sea to the south. It shares marit ...

. The principal islands in this region are Sumbawa,

Sumba Sumba (; ), natively also spelt as Humba, Hubba, Suba, or Zuba (in Sumba languages) is an Indonesian island (part of the Lesser Sunda Archipelago group) located in the Eastern Indonesia and administratively part of the East Nusa Tenggara pro ...

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...

, Timor,

Buru Buru (formerly spelled Boeroe, Boro, or Bouru) is the third largest island within the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. It lies between the Banda Sea to the south and Seram Sea to the north, west of Ambon Island, Ambon and Seram Island, Seram island ...

, and

Seram Seram (formerly spelled Ceram; also Seran or Serang) is the largest and main island of Maluku province of Indonesia, despite Ambon Island's historical importance. It is located just north of the smaller Ambon Island and a few other adjacent i ...

. The numerically most important languages are Bima, Manggarai of western Flores, Uab Meto of West Timor, and

Tetum Tetum may refer to: * Tetum language, an Austronesian language ** Tetum alphabet, used to write the Tetum language * Tetum people, an ethnic group of East Timor and Indonesia {{disambiguation Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...

, the national language of East Timor. Blust proposes that the CMP languages form a linkage, which means that the CMP languages share a common ancestor and many overlapping innovations, none of which however are found in all CMP languages.

Internal subgrouping

Based on the ''Glottolog'', CMP can be provisionally divided into the following subgroups: * Bima, spoken on the eastern half of

Island. *

Sumba–Flores languages The Sumba–Flores languages, which correspond to the traditional "Bima–Sumba" subgroup minus Bima, are a proposed group of Austronesian languages (geographically Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages) spoken on and around the islands ...

, spoken on and around the islands of

and western–central

in the Lesser Sundas. * Flores–Lembata languages, spoken in the Lesser Sundas, on eastern

and small islands immediately east of Flores. *

Selaru languages The Selaru languages are a pair of Austronesian languages The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean a ...

, spoken in the

Tanimbar Islands The Tanimbar Islands (; ), also called ''Timur Laut'' (literally, "North East"; ), are a group of about 65 islands in the Maluku province of Indonesia. The largest and most central of the islands is Yamdena; others include Selaru to the sout ...

of Indonesia. *

Kei–Tanimbar languages The Kei–Tanimbar languages are a small group of Austronesian languages spoken on the Kei and Tanimbar islands in the southern Maluku Islands, and on the north side of the Bomberai Peninsula. The languages include: *Kei–Tanimbar **Kei–For ...

, spoken in the Kei and

of the southern Malukus, and on the north side of the

Bomberai Peninsula Bomberai Peninsula () is located in the Western New Guinea region. It is south of the Bird's Head Peninsula, and Bintuni Bay separates the two peninsulas. To the west lies the Sebakor Bay and to the south Kamrau Bay. On the southeast Arguni ...

. *

Aru languages The Aru languages are a group of a dozen Austronesian languages spoken on the Aru Islands Regency, Aru Islands in Indonesia. None are spoken by more than ten thousand people. Although geographically close to Central Maluku languages, they are no ...

, spoken on the Aru Islands in

. *

Central Maluku languages The Central Maluku languages are a proposed subgroup of the Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family which comprises around fifty languages spoken principally on the Seram, Buru, Ambon and the Sula Islands ...

, spoken principally on the

, Ambon, Kei, and the Sula Islands. * Timoric languages, spoken on the islands of

, neighboring Wetar, and Southwest Maluku to the east. * Babar languages, spoken on the

Babar Islands The Babar Islands (; ) are located in Maluku Province, Indonesia between latitudes 7 degrees 31 minutes South to 8 degrees 13 minutes South and from longitudes 129 degrees 30 minutes East to 130 degrees 05 minutes East. The group now constitutes ...

. * Kowiai, spoken on the

in New Guinea. * Teor-Kur language, spoken near Kei Island, Indonesia.

Edwards & Grimes (2021)

Edwards & Grimes (2021) find that the similarities between the demonstrable groups of CMP languages are due to Papuan substrates and contact. They propose the following groups of languages in the area as primary branches of Austronesian. Several of these groups have been previously proposed, including by Blust:Edwards, Owen; Charles E. Grimes. 2021.
Revising the classification of the Austronesian languages of eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste
'
15th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics (15-ICAL)
June 28 to July 2, 2021,

Palacký University Olomouc Palacký University Olomouc () is the oldest university in Moravia and List of universities in the Czech Republic, the second-oldest in the Czech Republic. It was established in 1573 as a public university led by the Jesuit order in Olomouc, whi ...

. * Bima–Lembata languages ( Bima, Sumba–Flores & Flores–Lembata); marked by *#b > **w in a dozen roots *

Timor–Babar languages The Timoric languages are a group of Austronesian languages (belonging to the Central–Eastern subgroup) spoken on the islands of Timor, neighboring Wetar, and (depending on the classification) Southwest Maluku to the east. Within the grou ...

(extra-Ramelaic,

Babar Babar (), also variously spelled as Baber, Babur, and Babor is a male given name of Persian language, Persian origin, and a popular male given name in Pakistan. It is generally taken in reference to the Persian language, Persian ''babr'' (Persian ...

, Selaru); marked by *p > **h (often lost) * Central Timor languages (Ramelaic); *ŋ > **ɡ (often devoiced to ) *

; *j/R > **R, *z/y/i > **y (often with fortition to ) * Tanimbar–Bomberai languages ( Kei–Tanimbar, Teor-Kur, Irarutu–Nabi & Bedoanas–Erokwanas); *z/d > **d (later > in some); *j > in some words; *-ay/-aw > **-a; *p > * Sula–Buru languages (incl. Ambelau); *R > , *-ay/-aw > , *j > split zero ~ ; plus morphology & lexicon such as 'eye' * Ambon–Seram languages (Nunusaku); *ŋ/n > , *l/d/z/j/R > mostly **l *Seram Laut languages (tentative); *-ay/-aw > , *ə > in final syllables **

Banda Banda may refer to: People * Banda (surname) * Banda Prakash (born 1954), Indian politician * Banda Kanakalingeshwara Rao (1907–1968), Indian actor * Banda Karthika Reddy (born 1977), Indian politician *Banda Singh Bahadur (1670–1716), Sikh ...

** East Seram **Eastern Islands (Seram Laut proper: Geser, Kowiai) Seram Laut, apart from Kowiai, was first proposed by Collins (1986). It is distinguished from Ambon–Seram to the west in its reflexes of *j, *R, *-aw, and from Tanimbar–Bomberai to the east in *j and *z, but is only weakly defined as a unit. Its three branches are however well defined. Edwards & Grimes (2021) further propose that the Taliabo languages, generally held to be part of Central Maluku, are actually Celebic (specifically, Saluan–Banggai).

References

{{Central Malayo-Polynesian languages Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages Languages of Indonesia