| Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian | |
|---|---|
| (disputed) | |
| Geographic distribution | EastIndonesia andPacific Islands |
| Linguistic classification | Austronesian
|
| Subdivisions |
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| Language codes | |
TheCentral–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (CEMP) languages form a proposed branch of theMalayo-Polynesian languages consisting of over 700languages (Blust 1993).[1]
The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken in theLesser Sunda andMaluku Islands of theBanda Sea, in an area corresponding closely to theIndonesian provinces ofEast Nusa Tenggara andMaluku and the nation ofEast Timor (excepting thePapuan languages ofTimor and nearby islands), but with theBima language extending to the eastern half ofSumbawa Island in the province ofWest Nusa Tenggara and theSula languages of theSula Islands in the southwest corner of the province ofNorth Maluku. The principal islands in this region areSumbawa,Sumba,Flores,Timor,Buru, andSeram. The numerically most important languages are Nggahi Mbojo (Bimanese),Manggarai of western Flores,Uab Meto ofWest Timor, andTetum, the national language ofEast Timor.
In the original proposal, CEMP is divided intoCentral Malayo-Polynesian (CMP) andEastern Malayo-Polynesian (EMP). 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 alinkage. 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 alinkage; a conservative classification might consider CMP to be a convenient term for those Central–Eastern languages which are not Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (Grimes 1991).
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.[2] In contrast, the two individual branches,South Halmahera–West New Guinea andOceanic, each are well-defined by phonological andlexical innovations, and universally accepted as valid subgroups.
CEMP is rejected as a valid clade by Donohue & Grimes (2008),[3] who do not consider CEMP to even be alinkage. Donohue & Grimes (2008) argue that many features claimed to define CMP or CEMP are also found in some of the more conservative Western Malayo-Polynesian languages and even Formosan languages. Edwards & Grimes (2021) also does not consider CEMP to be a coherent branch.[4]
