The Sumba–Flores languages, which correspond to the traditional "Bima–Sumba" subgroup minus Bima, are a proposed group 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 and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken ...

(geographically

Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages The Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (CEMP) languages form a proposed branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages consisting of over 700 languages (Blust 1993). Distribution The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken in the Lesser Sun ...

) spoken on and around the islands of

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 ...

and western–central

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 ...

in the Lesser Sundas,

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, ...

. The main languages are Manggarai, which has half a million speakers on the western third of

, and Kambera, with a quarter million speakers on the eastern half of

Sumba Island Sumba (; ), natively also spelt as Humba, Hubba, Suba, or Zuba (in Sumba languages) is an List of islands of Indonesia, Indonesian island (part of the Lesser Sunda Islands, Lesser Sunda Archipelago group) located in the Eastern Indonesia and ad ...

. The Hawu language of

Savu Island Savu (, also known as Sabu, Havu, and Hawu) is the largest of a group of three islands, situated midway between Sumba and Rote, west of Timor, in Indonesia's eastern province, East Nusa Tenggara. Ferries connect the islands to Waingapu on S ...

is suspected of having a non-Austronesian

substratum Substrata, plural of substratum, may refer to: *Earth's substrata, the geologic layering of the Earth *''Hypokeimenon'', sometimes translated as ''substratum'', a concept in metaphysics *Substrata (album), a 1997 ambient music album by Biosphere * ...

, but perhaps not to any greater extent than the languages of central and eastern Flores, such as Sika, or indeed of Central Malayo-Polynesian languages in general.

Classification

Blust (2008) finds moderate support for linking the languages of western and central Flores with Sumba–Hawu. *Sumba–Flores ** Sumba–Hawu *** Hawu–Dhao ***

Sumba languages The Sumba languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian language family, spoken on Sumba, an island in eastern Indonesia.Asplund, Leif (2010)''The Languages of Sumba.''Paper presented at the East Nusantara Conference in Kupang. They are closely r ...

(see) **Western Flores ***Manggarai–Rembong: Komodo, Manggarai, Riung, Rembong, Rajong, Kepo', Wae Rana ***Central Flores–Paluʼe **** Paluʼe **** Central Flores *****Ende–Lio: a dialect cluster of Ende, Lio, Nage, Kéo *****Ngada: Ngadʼa, Rongga, Soʼa (dialect cluster)

References

External links

LexiRumah
(part of th
Lesser Sunda linguistic databases

Reconstructing the past through languages of the present: the Lesser Sunda Islands
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumba-Flores languages Languages of Indonesia Sumba languages Flores Island (Indonesia)

Classification

See also

References

Further reading

External links