Greater North Borneo languages

The Greater North Borneo languages are a proposed subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The subgroup historically covers languages that are spoken throughout much of Borneo (excluding the areas where the Greater Barito and Tamanic languages are spoken) and Sumatra, as well as parts of Java, and Mainland Southeast Asia. The Greater North Borneo hypothesis was first proposed by Robert Blust (2010) and further elaborated by Alexander Smith (2017a, 2017b).^[1][2][3] The evidence presented for this proposal are solely lexical.^[4] Despite its name, this branch has been now widespread within the Maritime Southeast Asia region, with the exception of the Philippines (although this depends on the classification of Molbog).

The proposed subgroup covers some of the major languages in Southeast Asia, including Malay/Indonesian and related Malayic languages such as Minangkabau, Banjar and Iban; as well as Sundanese and Acehnese. In Borneo itself, the largest non-Malayic GNB language in terms of the number of speakers is Central Dusun, mainly spoken in Sabah.^[5]

Since Greater North Borneo also includes the Malayic, Chamic, and Sundanese languages, it is incompatible with Alexander Adelaar's Malayo-Sumbawan hypothesis.^[6][7] However, in 2023, Alexander D. Smith reinterpreted the branch as a "zone of lexical diffusion" rather than a proper linguistic branch.^[8] Languages not included under Greater North Borneo by this paper are stroked on the infobox.