Central and Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian

TLDR

CEMP and its sub‑group CMP are defined by distinct phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic, and semantic innovations that set them apart from Proto‑Austronesian and Proto‑Malayo‑Polynesian, though CMP’s innovations sometimes exclude some members. The overlapping innovations in CMP languages point to a rapid Austronesian dispersal from the Northern Moluccas, and the Bomberai languages likely arrived via a back‑migration from the southern Moluccas after the initial settlement. Malayo‑Polynesian (CEMP).

Abstract

Malayo-Polynesian (CEMP). CEMP, encompassing all of the approximately 600 Austronesian languages of eastern Indonesia and the Pacific apart from Palauan, Chamorro, and possibly Yapese, is justified by a set of phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic, and semantic innovations that distinguish these languages from the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian family as a whole (Proto-Austronesian), and from the putative immediate ancestor of all non-Formosan Austronesian languages (Proto-Malayo-Polynesian). CMP, encompassing over 100 languages in the Lesser Sunda and Moluccan islands of eastern Indonesia, is justified by a set of phonological, lexical, and morphosyntactic innovations that often fail to include all members of the proposed group. These overlapping distributions of innovated features in CMP languages are interpreted as evidence for a rapid spread of Austronesian speakers through eastern Indonesia from a primary dispersal point in the Northern Moluccas soon after the separation of the ancestral CMP and EMP language communities. Within CMP, it is found that several languages of the Bomberai Peninsula on the southwest coast of New Guinea, including at least Sekar, Onin, and Uruangnirin, subgroup closely with Yamdena of the Tanimbar archipelago some 300 miles distant in the southern Moluccas. It is concluded that the Bomberai languages reached their historical locations through a back-migration from the southern Moluccas well after the initial Austronesian settlement of eastern Indonesia.