Central Malayo-Polynesian languages
The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages are proposed branch in the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The languages are spoken in the Lesser Sunda and Maluku Islands 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, 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 Bima, Manggarai of western Flores, Uab Meto of West Timor, and Tetum, the national language of East Timor.
Based on the proposed evidence, the CMP languages form a linkage, which means that the CMP languages share many overlapping innovations, none of which however is found in all CMP languages.Based on the Glottolog, CMP can be provisionally divided into the following subgroups:
- Bima, 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.
- Selaru languages, spoken in the Tanimbar Islands of Indonesia.
- Kei–Tanimbar languages, spoken in the Kei and Tanimbar Islands of the southern Malukus, and on the north side of the Bomberai Peninsula.
- Aru languages, spoken on the Aru Islands in Indonesia.
- Central Maluku languages, spoken principally on the Seram, Buru, Ambon, Kei, and the Sula Islands.
- Timoric languages, spoken on the islands of Timor, neighboring Wetar, and the Babar Islands to the east.
- Kowiai, spoken on the Bomberai Peninsula in New Guinea.
- Teor-Kur language, spoken near Kei Island, Indonesia.
