The Flores–Lembata languages are a group of related Austronesian languages (geographically Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages) spoken in the Lesser Sundas, on eastern Flores and small islands immediately east of Flores, Indonesia. They are suspected of having a non-Austronesian substratum, with extreme morphological simplification in Sikka and secondarily in Alorese, but not to a greater extent than the Central Malayo-Polynesian languages in general.
Languages The generally accepted defined Flores–Lembata languages are: Kedang Sikka Lamaholot In addition, the following is often grouped either as a dialect of Lamaholot or its own language: Adonara Alorese
Lamaholot is a dialect chain. Ethnologue treats ten varieties as distinct languages.
Classification Elias (2017) proposes the following internal classification of Flores–Lembata.Elias, Alexander. 2017. Subgrouping the Flores–Lembata languages using Historical Glottometry. 9th International Austronesian and Papuan Languages and Linguistics Conference (APLL9), 21–23 June 2017, LACITO, Paris.
Flores–Lembata Sikka–Hewa Sikka Hewa Kedang–Lamaholot Kedang Lamaholot Central Lamaholot Eastern–Western Lamaholot Eastern Lamaholot Alorese–Western Lamaholot Alorese Western Lamaholot
Linguistic areas are: East Lembata: Kedan, Eastern Lamaholot Sedentary Lembata: Eastern Lamaholot, Alorese, Western Lamaholot, Central Lamaholot
See also Central Flores languages
References
Further reading
External links LexiRumah (part of the Lesser Sunda linguistic databases) Reconstructing the past through languages of the present: the Lesser Sunda Islands