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peoples in the regions, which have been named by Europeans without paying attention to
the similarities of their origins based on language perspective (Fox, 1997a, 2011).
The Melanesian languages exist alongside of the Austronesian language family
(Proto-Austronesian), subgroup of Malayo-Polynesian languages. So far, more than 1,319
languages have been identified. Within the scope of a Proto-Austronesian language family,
Melanesian is known as a network of races that covers the Pacific region, the Bismarck
Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, and Santa Cruz Islands, Vanuatu, the New Hebrides
Islands, and New Caledonia.
Grimes et al. (1997) studied the languages of East Nusa Tenggara to identify the people’s
origins by pinpointing the origins of their languages. In Language Overview it describes a
meeting place providing ‘language data’ of the changes and development of the travel
dynamics of Austronesian languages in general. The phenomenon mentioned in the
article has to do with the constructive relationship between the Austronesian languages
in relation to the major language family which shows the origin of the language subgroups
to the level of dialects.
Likewise, a major language family, initially known as ‘Proto Austronesian’ (PA) from
which linguistic term Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) was derived, is claimed to be the
ancestor of all language family subgroups believed to be the descendants of the same
major language family. The ancestor of the Austronesian language is estimated to be in
the southbound lanes of the Philippines and into the Indonesian archipelago and towards
the south and towards to the Pacific. PMP is divided into two parts, (1) Western Malayo-
Polynesian (WMP) which includes Sumbawa and (2) Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
(CEMP). CEMP is divided further into two (a) Central Malayo-Polynesian (CMP) which
encompasses the languages of East Nusa Tenggara, East Timor, Maluku and Papua
(Indonesia). (b) Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (EMP) which splits into two sub branches,
(i) Halmahera and Papua New Guinea, and (ii) Oceania. See Bellwood (1985, 1995), Fox
(1995), Pawley and Ross (1994), and Tryon (2006).
The findings of genetics, archeology, and linguistics indicate that the Polynesians came
from Southeast Asia and Melanesia. The same study also applies to the Micronesians who
came from the Asian mainland. However, there is still a different opinion regarding the
genetic facts based on the study of various experts. In the perspective of livelihood such
as ‘ancestral sailors’ which is the hallmark of Melanesia, the people in the islands regions,
such as those in the Pacific Islands and the Indonesia Archipelago have long pursued that
kind of livelihood.

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