Flores–Lembata languages
The Flores–Lembata languages are a group of related Austronesian languages spoken in the Lesser Sundas, on eastern Flores and small islands immediately east of Flores. They are suspected of having a non-Austronesian substratum, for example in Sika, but not to any greater extent than the Central Malayo-Polynesian languages in general.Languages
The generally accepted defined Flores–Lembata languages are:
In addition, the following is often grouped either as a dialect of Lamaholot or its own language:
Lamaholot is considered to be a dialect chain. These dialects can be grouped into Eastern, Central and Western. In contrast, Ethnologue presents many of these dialects as distinct languages.Classification
Elias proposes the following internal classification of Flores-Lembata.
;Flores-Lembata
- Sika-Hewa
- *Sika
- *Hewa
- Kedang-Lamaholot
- *Kedang
- *Lamaholot
- **Central Lamaholot
- **Eastern-Western Lamaholot
- ***Eastern Lamaholot
- ***Alorese-Western Lamaholot
- ****Alorese
- ****Western Lamaholot
Linguistic areas are:
