Flores–Lembata languages
The Flores–Lembata languages are a group of related Austronesian 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:In addition, the following is often grouped either as a dialect of Lamaholot or its own language:
Lamaholot is a dialect chain. Ethnologue treats ten varieties as distinct languages.
Classification
Elias proposes the following internal classification of Flores–Lembata.- Flores–Lembata
- *Sikka–Hewa
- **Sikka
- **Hewa
- *Kedang–Lamaholot
- **Kedang
- **Lamaholot
- ***Central Lamaholot
- ***Eastern–Western Lamaholot
- ****Eastern Lamaholot
- ****Alorese–Western Lamaholot
- *****Alorese
- *****Western Lamaholot