Floresian

Floresian is a term used to refer to the people native to Flores, an Indonesian island in East Nusa Tenggara, as well as to the languages and cultural practices associated with them. The Floresian languages form a small, diverse branch of the Austronesian language family, spoken across Flores and neighboring islands. Major languages include Manggarai, Ngada, Ende, Sikka, and Lio, with many dialects.

Geographically, Flores lies in the Flores Sea and is part of the Nusa Tenggara archipelago. Its ethnolinguistic landscape comprises multiple communities, each with distinct traditional houses, weaving, music, and ritual life. The region has a long history of cross-cultural contact with neighboring islands and with outside traders and missionaries.

Religious composition among Floresians is diverse today, with significant Roman Catholic and Protestant communities alongside adherents of Islam and indigenous beliefs. Cultural expression commonly appears in ceremonies, textiles such as ikat weave, wood carving, and traditional music, with notable regional variations in practice and style.

In archaeology and anthropology, Flores is famous for the discovery of Homo floresiensis, the "Hobbit," in Liang Bua cave, dating roughly 100,000–60,000 years ago. Linguistically, Floresian languages are under pressure from Indonesian, leading to efforts to document and preserve regional varieties.

The term Floresian is used in scholarship and popular writing as an umbrella for the regional diversity of Flores; it does not refer to a single language or nation, and its precise usage varies across disciplines.