The Halmahera Sea languages, also known as the Raja Ampat-South Halmahera languages, are a branch of

Malayo-Polynesian languages The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...

of eastern Indonesia. They are spoken on islands in the

Halmahera Sea The Halmahera Sea is a regional sea located in the central eastern part of the Australasian Mediterranean Sea. It is centered at about 1°S and 129°E and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the north, Halmahera to the west, Waigeo and West P ...

, and on its margins from the south-eastern coast of

Halmahera Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coast of the island. Hal ...

to the

Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat, or the ''Four Kings'', is an archipelago located off the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula on the island of New Guinea, in Indonesia's Southwest Papua province. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals surrounding ...

off the western tip of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. The languages of the Raja Ampat Islands show a strong Papuan

substratum In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...

influence; it is not clear that they are actually Austronesian as opposed to relexified Papuan languages. Remijsen (2001) and Blust (1978) linked the languages of Raja Ampat to the

South Halmahera languages The South Halmahera languages are the branch of Austronesian languages found along the southeast coast of the island of Halmahera in the Indonesian province of North Maluku. Irarutu is spoken in the east of the Bomberai Peninsula in West Papu ...

. David Kamholz (2014) breaks up Raja Ampat, so that the structure of the Halmahera Sea languages is as follows:Kamholz, David (2014).
Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and change in South Halmahera–West New Guinea
''. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8zg8b1vd * South Halmahera *Ambel–Biga:

Waigeo Waigeo is an island in Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi, or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat, or the ''Four Kings'', is an archipelago loc ...

(Ambel),

Biga Biga may refer to: Places * Biga, Çanakkale, a town and district of Çanakkale Province in Turkey * Sanjak of Biga, an Ottoman province * Biga Çayı, a river in Çanakkale Province * Biga Peninsula, a peninsula in Turkey, in the northwest part ...

* As * Maden *Maya–Matbat: Matbat, Ma'ya (Salawati, Laganyan (Legenyem), Wauyai, Kawe, Batanta; perhaps distinct languages)

References

{{Languages of Indonesia South Halmahera–West New Guinea languages Languages of western New Guinea Halmahera