Central Malayo-Polynesian languages

The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages (CMP) are a proposed branch in the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family.[1][2] 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 (excepting the Papuan languages of Timor and nearby islands), 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.

Quick facts: Central Malayo-Polynesian, Geographic distrib... ▼

Central Malayo-Polynesian
Wallacean
(areal)
Geographic distribution	Indonesia
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (Central–Eastern) Central Malayo-Polynesian
ISO 639-5	plf
The Central MP languages (red). (In black is the Wallace Line.) In Grimes & Edwards' conception, more of the Bomerai Peninsula to the northeast is included.

Blust proposes that the CMP languages form a linkage, which means that the CMP languages share a common ancestor and many overlapping innovations, none of which however are found in all CMP languages.[3]