Piru Bay languages

The Piru Bay languages are a group of twenty Malayo-Polynesian languages, spoken on Ambon Island and around Piru Bay on the island of Seram. None of the languages have more than about twenty thousand speakers, and several are endangered with extinction.

Piru Bay
Geographic distribution	Indonesia: Ambon and Seram
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (MP) Central-Eastern MP Central Maluku ? East Central Maluku Seram ? Nunusaku Piru Bay
Glottolog	piru1243[1]

Classification

The languages are as follows:[1][2]

• West Piru Bay (Seram and Ambon islands)
  • Asilulu
  • Hoamoal: Luhu (Piru), Manipa; Larike-Wakasihu, Boano
• East Piru Bay
  • Sepa, Teluti
  • Solehua
    • Paulohi
    • Seram Straits
      • Kaibobo
      • Ambon: Hitu, Tulehu; Laha, Seit-Kaitetu
      • Uliase (Lease Islands)
        • Kamarian
        • Hatuhaha
          • Haruku
          • Saparuan
            • Elpaputi: Amahai, Nusa Laut
            • Saparua: Saparua, Latu

Many of the Piru Bay languages form a dialect continuum.

References

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Piru Bay". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
2. James T. Collins. 1983. The historical relationships of the languages of Central Maluku, Indonesia. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. (Pacific Linguistics: Series D-47.)