Buru–Sula languages explained

Buru–Sula
Region:	Indonesia
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam2:	Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:	Central–Eastern
Fam4:	Central Maluku
Glotto:	sula1247
Glottorefname:	Buru–Sula

The Buru–Sula languages are a group of Austronesian languages (geographically Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages) spoken on the Buru and Sula Islands in the eastern Moluccas. Buru itself has almost forty thousand speakers, and Sula about twenty thousand.

Classification

The languages are:

• Buru: Ambelau, Buru, Lisela, Moksela (extinct), Palumata (extinct)
• Sula: Mangole, Sula

Another extinct Buru language is the fragmentarily attested Hukumina language.

The Taliabo languages (Kadai, Padang/Samala, Mananga, Mangei/Soboyo) were once included, but turn out to be Celebic.^[1]

Notes and References

1. Charles Grimes & Owen Edwards (in process) Wallacean subgroups: unravelling the prehistory and classification of the Austronesian languages of eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste. Summary presentation at the 15th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics.