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 of Sumba and western–central Flores in the Lesser Sundas, Indonesia. The main languages are Manggarai, which has half a million speakers on the western third of Flores, and Kambera, with a quarter million speakers on the eastern half of Sumba Island.

Sumba–Flores
Geographic
distribution
Indonesia (Lesser Sunda Islands)
Linguistic classificationAustronesian
Subdivisions
  • Sumba–Hawu
  • Western Flores
Glottologflor1240

The Hawu language of Savu Island is suspected of having a non-Austronesian substratum, 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)[1] finds moderate support for linking the languages of western and central Flores with Sumba–Hawu.

See also

References

  1. Blust, Robert (2008). "Is There a Bima-Sumba Subgroup?". Oceanic Linguistics. 47 (1): 45–113. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0006. JSTOR 20172340.

Further reading

  • Gasser, Emily. 2014. Subgrouping in Nusa Tenggara: The case of Bima-Sumba. In Jeffrey Connor-Linton and Luke Wander Amoroso (eds.), Measured Language: Quantitative Studies of Acquisition, Assessment, and Variation, 63-78. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
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