rumpun

Rumpun is a term in Malay and Indonesian that literally means a cluster, bundle, or branch. In linguistic and social contexts it is used to refer to a group that shares a common origin, whether in language, ethnicity, or culture. The word carries a sense of historical or genealogical relatedness rather than current political boundaries.

In linguistics, rumpun bahasa denotes a language family or a major sub-branch within a larger language tree. It is a pragmatic label used in education and public discourse to describe relationships among languages believed to descend from a common ancestor. Examples include the concept of rumpun bahasa Austronesia or rumpun bahasa Melayu-Polinesia, though exact boundaries vary among researchers and classifications.

In anthropology and ethnography, rumpun can describe clusters of related ethnic groups sharing linguistic, cultural, or historical ties. It is commonly used in Southeast Asia to discuss regional patterns of settlement, migration, and exchange. As with linguistic usage, the term is not strictly technical and may be defined differently by scholars.

Because rumpun is a broad label, it should be interpreted as a heuristic rather than a precise taxonomic unit. Modern science may prefer terms such as language family, branch, or clade depending on the field and methodology.