In the original proposal, CEMP is divided into Central Malayo-Polynesian and Eastern Malayo-Polynesian. However, CMP is generally understood to be a cover term for the non-EMP languages within CEMP, which form a linkage at best rather than a valid clade. The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages may form a linkage. They are for the most part poorly attested, but they do not appear to constitute a coherent group. Many of the proposed defining features of CMP are not found in the geographic extremes of the area. Therefore some linguists consider it a linkage; a conservative classification might consider CMP to be a convenient term for those Central–Eastern languages which are not Eastern Malayo-Polynesian. The Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages extend from the coasts of Halmahera across the Pacific. This subgroup is still controversial as it is solely based on lexical evidence, with no shared phonological innovations. In contrast, the two individual branches, South Halmahera–West New Guinea and Oceanic, each are well-defined by phonological and lexical innovations, and universally accepted as valid subgroups.
Criticism
CEMP is rejected as a valid clade by Donohue & Grimes, who do not consider CEMP to even be a linkage. Donohue & Grimes argue that many features found in CMP or CEMP languages are also found in more conservative Western Malayo-Polynesian languages and even Formosan languages.
Languages
Given the poor support for larger groupings, some of the groups listed here are provisional.
Central Malayo-Polynesian languages
*Bima language, spoken on the eastern half of Sumbawa Island.
*Sumba–Flores languages, spoken on and around the islands of Sumba and western–central Flores in the Lesser Sundas.
*Flores–Lembata languages, spoken in the Lesser Sundas, on eastern Flores and small islands immediately east of Flores.
*Central Maluku languages, spoken principally on the Seram, Buru, Ambon, Kei, and the Sula Islands.
*Timoric, or Timor–Babar, languages, spoken on the islands of Timor, neighboring Wetar, and the Babar Islands to the east.
*Kowiai language, spoken on the Bomberai Peninsula in New Guinea.
*Teor-Kur language, spoken near Kei Island, Indonesia.
Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages
*South Halmahera–West New Guinea languages, found in the islands and along the shores of the Halmahera Sea in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and of Cenderawasih Bay in the provinces of Papua and West Papua.
