> When I visited Flores, the most surprising thing about it was that on a 130 km island the inhabitants spoke 5 languages and 80 distinct dialects. My understa

> When I visited Flores, the most surprising thing about it was that on a 130 km island the inhabitants spoke 5 languages and 80 distinct dialects. My understanding is basically there was the original indigenous people (who are closely related to the indigenous peoples of that whole island chain stretching from Indian islands in the West, Andamanese, and going all the way east to Papuans, and Australian aboriginals). The subsequent groups came due to economic-religious expansionary activity from East Asian peoples who had taken Java and Sumatera, and also Portuguese activity. This process is also happening in Papua, quite violently as one half of the island is pretty much an open pit mine occupied by East Asian Indonesian soldiers fighting off indigenous Papuan tribes. Doesn't get much coverage here though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMeYD-wFC1o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMeYD-wFC1o I think recently the level of violence has flared up because Indonesia is sending more East Asian settlers into the area.