Merap (Mbraa) is an Austronesian language, spoken in the village of Langap [id] in South Malinau district, Malinau Regency, North Kalimantan, Indonesia. Soriente (2015) classifies Mbraa (also known as Merap) as a Kayan–Murik (Modang-Bahau) language.
Phonology
Merap phonology has departed significantly from Proto-Malayo Polynesian. Merap stress is word-final, and word shape is sesquisyllabic (a minor penultimate syllable followed by a stressed full ultima). The number of vowel contrasts has increased significantly as well. Where Proto-Malayo-Polynesian had four vowels (*i, *u, *a, and *ə) Merap has well over twenty contrasts, including diphthongs, triphthongs, and nasality distinctions.
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | p b | t d | c ɟ | k ɡ | ʔ |
Fricative | s | h | |||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
Lateral | l | ||||
Trill | r |
- /b/ is pronounced as implosive [ɓ] in the offset of final syllables.2
- /ɡ/ except after /ŋ/ is rare, and occurs only in loanwords.3
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
short | long | ||||
Close | i | u | |||
Mid | ɛ | ə | o | ||
Open | a | aː | |||
Diphthongs | closing | iw ɛj əw ae̯ ai̯ ao̯ au̯ oj uj | |||
centering | iə̯ aə̯ uə̯ | ||||
nasalised | ĩə̯ ãə̯ ũə̯ | ||||
Triphthongs | ɛjə̯ ajə̯ awə̯ ojə̯ |
Notes
Bibliography
- Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "Merap Historical Phonology" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (1).
- Soriente, Antonia. 2015. Mbraa: A Modang-Bahau language? Presentation given at 13-ICAL, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
References
Smith 2017, p. 143. - Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "Merap Historical Phonology" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (1). https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fb0c2e_5daba1d9ed594ad8b007a4036d1b4052.pdf ↩
Smith 2017, p. 157. - Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "Merap Historical Phonology" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (1). https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fb0c2e_5daba1d9ed594ad8b007a4036d1b4052.pdf ↩
Smith 2017, p. 160. - Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "Merap Historical Phonology" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (1). https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fb0c2e_5daba1d9ed594ad8b007a4036d1b4052.pdf ↩
Smith 2017, p. 160. - Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "Merap Historical Phonology" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (1). https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fb0c2e_5daba1d9ed594ad8b007a4036d1b4052.pdf ↩