Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages

[1] The Central Malayo-Polynesian 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 Islands in the southwest corner of the province of North Maluku.

The principal islands in this region are Sumbawa, Sumba, Flores, Timor, Buru, and Seram.

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.

Therefore some linguists consider it a linkage; a conservative classification might consider CMP to be a convenient term for those Central–Eastern languages which are not Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (Grimes 1991).

[2] In contrast, the two individual branches, South Halmahera–West New Guinea and Oceanic, each are well-defined by phonological and lexical innovations, and universally accepted as valid subgroups.

Wallacea is the group of islands within the red area. The Weber Line is in blue. The Central Malayo-Polynesian (CMP) languages are located almost exclusively within Wallacea. Other language groups in Wallacea include the North Halmahera , Celebic , and South Sulawesi languages.