Melanau language

Melanau
Melanau
Central Melanau
Native to	Malaysia, Brunei
Region	Sarawak and neighbouring Brunei
Ethnicity	Melanau people
Native speakers	(110,000 cited 2000)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian North Bornean Melanau–Kajang 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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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.

Phonology

Consonants

Melanau has the following consonants.

		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

Melanau has the following vowels.

	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].

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]

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.
1 2 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

[e18-1] 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)

[2] Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

[Clayre_1970-3] 1 2 Clayre 1970.

[4] Clayre 1972.

[5] "Melanau language". Omniglot. Retrieved 27 August 2021.

v t e Languages of Brunei
Official language	Malay
Lingua franca	Brunei Malay English
Minority languages	Belait Chinese Dusun Bisaya Iban Lun Bawang Melanau Berawan Tutong Tamil Sian Penan-Nibong