Merap (Mbraa) 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 the village of in South Malinau district,

Malinau Regency Malinau Regency is a Regencies of Indonesia, regency of North Kalimantan Province in Indonesia. It was created on 4 October 1999 from the western districts of Bulungan Regency. The administrative centre is the town of Malinau Kota, Malinau. The r ...

North Kalimantan North Kalimantan () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. North Kalimantan borders the Malaysian states of Sabah to the north and Sarawa ...

, 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 Primarily in Austroasiatic languages (also known as Mon–Khmer), in a typical word, a minor syllable, presyllable, or sesquisyllable, is a reduced (minor) syllable followed by a full tonic or stressed syllable. The minor syllable may be of the for ...

(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

* is pronounced as implosive in the offset of final syllables. * except after is rare, and occurs only in loanwords.

Vowels

* The distinction between and only occurs in final syllables before glottals and .

References

Notes

Bibliography

* *Soriente, Antonia. 2015. ''Mbraa: A Modang-Bahau language?'' Presentation given at 13-ICAL, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. Kayan–Murik languages Languages of Indonesia Endangered Austronesian languages {{au-lang-stub