Berawan is an

Austronesian language The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...

spoken in eastern

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

, Malaysia.

Dialects

# Lakiput # Narom # Lelak # Dali # Miri long teran # Belait # Tutong # Long Terawan # Long Tutoh # Mulu Caves

Distribution

# Baram (Tutoh-Tinjar) # Batu Bela (Sungai Merah / Lower Tutoh) # Long Terawan (Middle Tutoh) # Long Teru (Lower Tinjar) # Long Jegan (Middle Tinjar) # Long Teran # Long Tabing # Long Takong # Loagan Bunut National Park # Long Patan # Long Palo (Tutoh) # Long Kuk

Reconstruction

Proto-Berawan is the reconstructed

proto-language In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unatte ...

of all Berawan language varieties. Its phonology has been extensively reconstructed by Jürgen M. Burkhardt in 2014.

Sound changes from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian

;Severe limitations on antepenult syllables All preantepenult syllables were lost in Proto-Berawan: ''*kalapani'' > ''*ləpineʔ'' > metathesised ''*pəlineʔ'' 'swallow (bird)'. Following this stage, all vowels in antepenult syllables were neutralised into ''*ə'': ''*tinaʔi'' > ''*tənaʔeʔ'' 'small intestines'. ;Vowel changes in penult syllables The vowel ''*i'', when preceding a vowel, inserted a glide in between, followed by other developments (''*-iy-'' > ''*-iyy-'' > ''*-əyy-'' > ''*-əjj-''). Meanwhile, ''*ə'' largely did not change during Proto-Berawan stage, but it geminated the following consonant (''*pənuq'' > ''*pənno'' 'full'). The only exceptions were in word-initial position, in two words changed early into ''*a'' (''*əzan'', ''*əmbaw'' > ''*acciən'' 'notched log ladder', ''*appiəw'' 'high'), while in two others simply deleted it (''*əpat'', ''*əsuŋ'' > ''*pat'' 'four', ''*coŋ'' 'rice mortar'). When following other consonants, ''*a'' remains, but when following voiced (''*b'', ''*β'', ''*d'', ''*z'', ''*g'') or palatal (''*j'', ''*ñ'', ''*y'') consonants, it became ''*i'' instead (''*batu'' > ''*bittoh'' 'stone', ''*ia'' > ''*jiəh'' '(s)he/it'). The consonant ''*l'' did not block the raising (''*balu'' > ''*billoh'' 'widow'). ;In final syllables

References

Bibliography

External links

* Kaipuleohone has an open access collection of materials
RB2-003
that includes notes on Berawan. {{authority control Languages of Brunei Berawan–Lower Baram languages Languages of Malaysia Endangered Austronesian languages