Flores–Lembata languages

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 Sika and secondarily in Alorese, but not to a greater extent than the Central Malayo-Polynesian languages in general.

Flores–Lembata
Geographic distribution	Indonesia (Lesser Sunda Islands)
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (Central) Bima–Lembata? Flores–Lembata
Subdivisions	Kedang Sika–Lamaholot
Language codes
Glottolog	flor1239

Languages

The generally accepted defined Flores–Lembata languages are:^[1]

• Kedang
• Sika
• 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.^[2]

• Flores-Lembata
  • Sika-Hewa
    • Sika
    • Hewa
  • Kedang-Lamaholot
    • Kedang
    • Lamaholot
      • Central Lamaholot
      • Eastern-Western Lamaholot
        • Eastern Lamaholot
        • Alorese-Western Lamaholot
          • Alorese
          • Western Lamaholot

Linguistic areas are:^[2]

• East Lembata: Kedan, Eastern Lamaholot
• Sedentary Lembata: Eastern Lamaholot, Alorese, Western Lamaholot, Central Lamaholot

See also

• Central Flores languages