Bengkulu Malay, or simply Bengkulu, is a Malayic language spoken primarily in

Bengkulu Province Bengkulu (), historically known as Bencoolen, is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It was formed on 18 November 1968 by separating out the area of the historic Bencoolen Residency from the province of ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, including

Bengkulu City Bengkulu (; Rejangese language, Rejangese: ), formerly Bencoolen (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Benkoelen'') is the capital of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of Bengkulu. The city is the second largest city on the west coast of Sumat ...

and surrounding areas, as well as parts of

Pesisir Barat Regency Pesisir Barat Regency (, literally West Coast Regency) is a regency in Lampung Province of Indonesia. It was created on 25 October 2012 from the eight western districts of West Lampung Regency. It covers an area of 2,939.60 km2, and had a populat ...

Lampung Province Lampung, officially the Province of Lampung (; ), is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. It has a short border with the province of Bengkulu to the northwest, and a longer border with the provinc ...

. It is the native language of the

Bengkulu Malays The Bengkulu Malays (, Jawi: ) are an ethnic group native to Bengkulu, a province on the southwestern coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. While part of the larger Malay cultural and linguistic sphere, they have developed distinct historical, linguistic ...

and is more closely related to other Central Sumatra Malay varieties, such as

Col A col is the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks; a mountain pass or saddle. COL, CoL or col may also refer to: Computers * Caldera OpenLinux, a defunct Linux distribution * , an HTML element specifying a column * A collision sig ...

Jambi Malay Jambi Malay (''bahaso Jambi'' or ''baso Jambi'', Jawi: بهاس جمبي), is a Malayic language primarily spoken by the Jambi Malay people in Jambi, Indonesia, but also spoken by migrants who have settled in Jambi. Jambi Malay is considered as ...

, Palembang Malay, and

Minangkabau Minangkabau may refer to: * Minangkabau culture, culture of the Minangkabau people * Minangkabau Culture Documentation and Information Center * Minangkabau Express, an airport rail link service serving Minangkabau International Airport (''see bel ...

, than to the

Rejang language Rejang (, ) is an Austronesian language predominantly spoken by the Rejang people in southwestern parts of Sumatra ( Bengkulu), Indonesia. There are five dialects, spread from mountainous region to the coastal region of Bengkulu, including the ...

, which is also spoken in the province.

Phonology

Bengkulu is written in the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, Jawi, and sometimes in Rejang scripts.

Consonants

The letters , , and are used in loanwords from Indonesian.

Vowels

Bengkulu

diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...

s are , .

References

Languages of Indonesia Malay language Malay dialects Malayic languages {{malayic-lang-stub