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Melanau language

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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]

Melanau
Central Melanau
Native to	Malaysia, Brunei
Region	Sarawak and neighbouring Brunei
Ethnicity	Melanau people
Native speakers	110,000 (2000)^[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian North Bornean Melanau–Kajang Melanau languages Melanau
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: `mel` – Central Melanau `dro` – Daro-Matu Melanau `sdx` – Sibu Melanau
Glottolog	`cent2101` Central `daro1239` Daro-Matu `sibu1258` Sibu
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Phonology

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Consonants

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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
Plosives and affricates	voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ		ʔ
Fricatives			s				h, ɦ
Lateral			l
Trills			r			ʀ
Semivowels		w		j

Vowels

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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

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Vowels and diphthongs

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a – [a]
aa – [aː]
e – [ɛ/ə]
i – [i]
o – [ɔ]
u – [u]
ai – [ai]
au – [au]
ei – [ei]
ou – [ou]
ui – [ui]

Consonants

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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

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^ Central MelanauatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Daro-Matu MelanauatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Sibu MelanauatEthnologue (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

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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

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Kaipuleohone holds two open access collections that include Balingian language materials (RB1-002 and RB2-003-E) as well as notebook pages of stories

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Melanau_language&oldid=1124848427"

Last edited on 30 November 2022, at 20:54

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