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There are Javanese similarities with Balinese and Sasak of the Lesser Sundas, which several classifications have taken as evidence for a relationship between them. However, the similarities are with the "high" registers (formal language/royal speech) of Balinese and Sasak; when the "low" register (commoner speech) is considered, the connection appears instead to be with Madurese and Malay. This is somewhat similar to the situation with English, where more 'refined' vocabulary suggests a connection with French, but basic language demonstrates its relationship to German.
I don't follow this reasoning. At least not in the context of an article titled "Malayo-Sumbawan languages". What the paragraph, taken for itself, seems to suggest is that Javanese does not belong to the Bali-Sasak group, which is admittedly unexpected on geographic grounds, and that the similarities are due to adstratum effects (specifically lexical borrowing, if the similarities are mainly lexical, as the comparison with English and French seems to suggest). However, Madurese and Malay are also listed as Malayo-Sumbawan languages here. Wouldn't this state of affairs (if Malayo-Sumbawan is a valid genetic unit and the situation described appropriately here) suggest that Javanese is also part of Malayo-Sumbawan? --Florian Blaschke (talk) 20:57, 12 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Using another comparison, this sounds like a hypothetical argument that Danish cannot be a Germanic language because while its "refined" vocabulary resembles German and English, the basic language is much more similar to Icelandic – what this demonstrates is merely that Danish is not a West Germanic language, of course. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 21:23, 12 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I agree it the paragraph needs to be rewritten. The real message is Balinese and Sasak languages appears more similar to Javanese only with regard to 'high' registers, but are actually more similar to Madurese and Malay with regard to 'low' registers. Since 'low' register is regarded as the true basic form of a language, it can be concluded that Balinese and Sasak languages are actually close to Malay & Madurese, hence belongs to Malayo-Sumbawan.
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