The Central Malayo-Polynesian (CMP) linkage

Linkage (linguistics)

In linguistics, a linkage is a group of undoubtedly related languages for which no proto-language can be reconstructed. Malcolm Ross, who coined the term, defined it as “a group of communalects which have arisen by dialect differentiation” ....

is an erstwhile branch of Austronesian languages

Austronesian languages

The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...

. The languages are spoken in the Lesser Sunda

Lesser Sunda Islands

The Lesser Sunda Islands or Nusa Tenggara are a group of islands in the southern Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up the Sunda Islands...

 and Maluku Islands

Maluku Islands

The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...

 of the Banda Sea

Banda Sea

The Banda Sea is a sea in the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, technically part of the Pacific Ocean but separated from it by hundreds of islands, as well as the Halmahera and Ceram Seas...

, in an area corresponding closely to the Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n provinces of East Nusa Tenggara

East Nusa Tenggara

East Nusa Tenggara is a province of Indonesia, located in the eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, including West Timor. The provincial capital is Kupang, located on West Timor...

 and Maluku

Maluku (Indonesian province)

Maluku is a province of Indonesia, comprising, broadly, the central and southern parts of the Maluku Islands , which are culturally and geographically associated with Melanesia....

 and the nation of East Timor

East Timor

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...

 (excepting the Papuan languages

Papuan languages

The Papuan languages are those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. The term does not presuppose a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892.-The...

 of Timor

Timor

Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. The island's surface is 30,777 square kilometres...

 and nearby islands), but with the Bima language

Bima language

The Bima language, or Bimanese, is the language of the eastern half of Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, which it shares with the Sumbawa language. Bima territory includes the Sanggar Peninsula, where the extinct Papuan language Tambora was once spoken. It is closely related to the languages of Sumba...

 extending to the eastern half of Sumbawa

Sumbawa

Sumbawa is an Indonesian island, located in the middle of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain, with Lombok to the west, Flores to the east, and Sumba further to the southeast. It is in the province of West Nusa Tenggara....

 Island in the province of West Nusa Tenggara

West Nusa Tenggara

West Nusa Tenggara is a province in south-central Indonesia. The province encompasses the western portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, except for Bali as the Wallace line running the length of the Lombok Strait forms the western boundary of the province....

 and the Sula languages of the Sula archipelago in the southwest corner of the province of North Maluku

North Maluku

North Maluku is a province of northeastern Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, which are split between it and the province of Maluku. Maluku province used to cover the entire group...

. The principal islands in this region are Sumbawa, Sumba

Sumba

Sumba is an island in eastern Indonesia, is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, and is in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Sumba has an area of 11,153 km², and the population was officially at 611,422 in 2005...

, Flores

Flores

Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km² extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. The population was 1.831.000 in the 2010 census and the largest town is Maumere. Flores is Portuguese for "flowers".Flores is located east of Sumbawa...

, Timor, Buru

Buru

Buru is the third largest island within Maluku Islands of Malay Archipelago. It lies between the Banda Sea to the south and Seram Sea to the north, west of Ambon and Seram islands. The island belongs to Maluku province of Indonesia and includes the Buru and South Buru regencies...

, and Seram

Seram

Seram is an island in the Maluku province of Indonesia. It is located north of Ambon Island. The chief port/town is Masohi.- Geography and geology :...

. The numerically most important languages are Bima, Manggarai of western Flores, Uab Meto of West Timor, and Tetum

Tetum language

Tetum is an Austronesian language, a national language and one of the two official languages of East Timor. It is also used in parts of West Timor that adjoin East Timor, particularly in Belu Regency...

, the national language of East Timor.

The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages are for the most part poorly attested, and they do not constitute a coherent group. Analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database (2008) did not discern the possibility of an exclusive relationship. Many of the proposed defining features of CMP are not found in the geographic extremes of the area. Therefore some linguists consider it a linkage

Linkage (linguistics)

In linguistics, a linkage is a group of undoubtedly related languages for which no proto-language can be reconstructed. Malcolm Ross, who coined the term, defined it as “a group of communalects which have arisen by dialect differentiation” ....

; a conservative classification might consider CMP to be a convenient term for the Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages which are not Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages

Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages

The Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages form a putative subgroup of the Malayo-Polynesian languages consisting of over 500 languages. Their relationship is not supported by much linguistic data: per Malcolm Ross, there is "essentially no evidence" that the Halmahera–Cenderawasih and Oceanic...

, themselves both poorly supported groups. (Grimes 1991) Languages in the east of Flores and nearby islands, such as Savu, have especially large amounts of apparently non-Austronesian basic vocabulary (Würm 1975), but all of the CMP languages appear to have a non-Austronesian

Papuan languages

The Papuan languages are those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. The term does not presuppose a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892.-The...

 substrate that sets them apart.

See Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages for the interrelationships of the Central MP languages.