Melanau is an Austronesian language spoken in the coastal area of the Rajang delta on northwest Borneo, Sarawak, Malaysia and Brunei. There are several dialects—Mukah-Oya, Balingian, Bruit, Dalat, Lawas, Igan, Sarikei, Segahan, Prehan, Segalang, and Siteng.[2]
Phonology
Consonants
Melanau has the following consonants.[3]
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Plosives and affricates |
voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | ʔ | |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | |||
| Fricatives | s | h, ɦ | |||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Trills | r | ʀ | |||||
| Semivowels | w | j | |||||
Vowels
Melanau has the following vowels.[3]
| front | central | back rounded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | ɛ | ə | ɔ |
| Low | a |
Sounds /i a u ɔ/ can have allophones of [ɪ æ~ʌ ʊ ɒ].[4]
Orthography
Vowels and diphthongs
- a – [a]
- aa – [aː]
- e – [ɛ/ə]
- i – [i]
- o – [ɔ]
- u – [u]
- ai – [ai]
- au – [au]
- ei – [ei]
- ou – [ou]
- ui – [ui]
Consonants
- b – [b]
- c – [t͡ʃ]
- d – [d]
- g – [g]
- h – [h, ɦ]
- j – [d͡ʒ]
- k – [k]
- l – [l]
- m – [m]
- n – [n]
- ng – [ŋ]
- ny – [ɲ]
- p – [p]
- r – [r/ʀ]
- s – [s]
- t – [t]
- w – [w]
- y – [j][5]
Notes
- ^ Central Melanau at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Daro-Matu Melanau at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Sibu Melanau at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) - ^ Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- ^ a b Clayre 1970.
- ^ Clayre 1972.
- ^ "Melanau language". Omniglot. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
References
- I.F.C.S. Clayre. 1970. "The Spelling of Melanau (nee Milano)," The Sarawak Museum Journal 18:330-352.
- Clayre, Iain F. C. S. 1972. A grammatical description of Melanau. University of Edinburgh.
- Rensch, Calvin R. 2012. Melanau and the Languages of Central Sarawak. SIL Electronic Survey Report. SIL International.
External links
- Kaipuleohone holds two open access collections that include Balingian language materials (RB1-002 and RB2-003-E) as well as notebook pages of stories
