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Merap language
Language

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.

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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 ) Merap has well over twenty contrasts, including diphthongs, triphthongs, and nasality distinctions.

Consonants

LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Stopp bt dc ɟk ɡʔ
Fricativesh
Nasalmnɲŋ
Laterall
Trillr
  • /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

FrontCentralBack
shortlong
Closeiu
Midɛəo
Opena
Diphthongsclosingiw ɛj əw ae̯ ai̯ ao̯ au̯ oj uj
centeringiə̯ aə̯ uə̯
nasalisedĩə̯ ãə̯ ũə̯
Triphthongsɛjə̯ ajə̯ awə̯ ojə̯
  • The distinction between /a/ and // only occurs in final syllables before glottals /ʔ/ and /h/.4

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

  1. Smith 2017, p. 143. - Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "Merap Historical Phonology" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (1). https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fb0c2e_5daba1d9ed594ad8b007a4036d1b4052.pdf

  2. Smith 2017, p. 157. - Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "Merap Historical Phonology" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (1). https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fb0c2e_5daba1d9ed594ad8b007a4036d1b4052.pdf

  3. Smith 2017, p. 160. - Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "Merap Historical Phonology" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (1). https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fb0c2e_5daba1d9ed594ad8b007a4036d1b4052.pdf

  4. Smith 2017, p. 160. - Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "Merap Historical Phonology" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (1). https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fb0c2e_5daba1d9ed594ad8b007a4036d1b4052.pdf