Sumba–Flores languages

Sumba–Flores
Bima–Sumba
Geographic
distribution:
Lesser Sunda Islands (Indonesia)
Linguistic classification:

Austronesian

Subdivisions:
  • ? Bima
  • Sumba–Manggarai
Glottolog: bima1247  (Bima)[1]
flor1240  (Sumba–Manggarai)[2]

The Sumba–Flores languages, approximately synonymous with Bima–Sumba, are a proposed group of Austronesian languages (geographically Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages) spoken on and around the islands of Sumbawa (eastern), Sumba, and western–central Flores in the Lesser Sundas. The main languages are Bima and Manggarai, which have half a million speakers apiece on the eastern half of Sumbawa Island and the western third of Flores, respectively, and Kambera, with a quarter million speakers on the eastern half of Sumba Island.

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 (2009)[3] finds moderate support for linking Bimanese with Sumba–Manggarai.

References

  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Bima". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Flores–Sumba–Hawu". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Robert Blust, 2009. "Is there a Bima-Sumba subgroup?" In Oceanic Linguistics


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