Page 241 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

Map of the Melanesian region in the Pacific

Island, Raja Ampat, Biak, Waropen, Wondama Bay, along the Gulf of Cenderawasih, the
western end of the island of Papua from Sorong to the south along Sele strait coast, the
area around the Bintuni bay, Arguni bay to the coastal areas of Etna bay. This research has
been increasingly complemented by Blust’s research, in which Blust groups Austronesian
East subgroups to include Biak, Noemfoor, Ormu, Wood Pulo and Tobati which together
with the language of the islands of Raja Ampat and South Halmahera, are seen as a
bipartite branch. Those discoveries ultimately have made the region of the distribution of
Melanesian languages more widespread by including Papua and small islands in its vicinity.
Blust (1976) discussed the primary branches of the Austronesian languages. The results
of this and other studies show the linguistic relationship between Papua and the regions
outside Papua. Blust (1984) divides proto-Austronesian into two parts, namely Formosa
and Malay-Polynesian. Blust divides Malay-Polynesian languages further into two
branches, namely Western Polynesian and the Central-East Polynesian. According to him,
the Central-East Malay-Polynesian language extends into the Bima language in Sumbawa
Island, Lesser Indonesia as far as Aru and towards the northwest of Central Maluku,
including Sula islands. In addition, some of the Central-East Malay-Polynesian languages

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