Page 182 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

between Halmahera and Papua linguistic affinity between non-Austronesian language
group and the Austronesian group, and kinship of mythology narratives (about eels and
snakes) among speakers of different inhabitantial areas of origin who were even separated
by Halmahera sea.

The Austronesian Language Family
The spread of this language family is very wide: from Taiwan and Hawaii in the north,
to New Zealand (Aotearoa) in the south, and from Madagascar in the west, to Easter
Island (Rapanui) in the east.33 Blust, splits the Austronesian language family into two
major groups; namely (1) languages that are found in Formosa (Taiwan) namely Atayalic,
Tsouc, and Paiwanic, and (2) languages outside Formosa, namely Malayo-Polynesian.34
Languages in this consist of three groups; namely (1) Western Malayo Polynesian including
the languages in the Philippines and western Indonesia, (2) Central Malayo Polynesian
including languages in the lesser Sunda islands, Sumbawa, South and Central Maluku and
(3) East Malayo Polynesian that includes South Halmahera and the western Birds Head
and the surrounding islands in West Papua. According to Blust, Eastern Malayo Polynesian,
along with its parts, is referred to as the group where the languages of Melanesia are found.
In other words, for Blust the Austronesian language group is a group of Malayo Polynesian
languages outside the island of Formosa and the Melanesian languages are part of the East
Malayo Polynesian language groups. However, according to Grimes and Grimes (1984),
the Central and Eastern Malayo Polynesian language groups are to be considered as the
source area for the Melanesian languages.
The language groupings by Blust are different from those based on lexicostatistics by
taking into account basic vocabulary similarities as practiced by Grimes & Grimes.36 Grimes
& Grimes researched the languages of North Maluku. Therefore, the scope of attention
was more specialized than what was done by Blust. The calculation of lexicostatistics make
Grimes and Grimes (1984) data more detailed and valid. According to Blust, the groups
of West Malayo Polynesian language are Sangir, Buton, and Bajo. The Malay language in
North Maluku was reportedly brought by migrants. Central Malayo Polynesian language
groups consist of Sula, Mangole, Taliabu, and Bacan languages. While the Eastern Malayo
Polynesian language group consists of three groups of languages (stocks), namely (1) the
language group in West Halmahera which is composed of two sub-groups of languages:
East Makian and Gane, as well as the Weda language sub-group consisting of Weda and
Sawai languages; (2) the East Halmahera language group consisting of Patani, Maha, and
Buli languages; and (3) the Gebe language in Papua.

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