Melanau is an
Austronesian
Austronesian may refer to:
*The Austronesian languages
*The historical Austronesian peoples
The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Sout ...
language spoken in the coastal area of the
Rajang delta on northwest Borneo,
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
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
and
Brunei
Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...
. There are several dialects—Mukah-Oya, Balingian, Bruit, Dalat, Lawas, Igan, Sarikei, Segahan, Prehan, Segalang, and Siteng.
Phonology
Consonants
Melanau has the following consonants.
[Clayre 1970.]
Vowels
Melanau has the following vowels.
Sounds can have allophones of
~
Orthography
Vowels and diphthongs
* a –
* aa –
* e –
* i –
* o –
* u –
* ai –
* au –
* ei –
* ou –
* ui –
Consonants
* b –
* c –
* d –
* g –
* h –
* j –
* k –
* l –
* m –
* n –
* ng –
* ny –
* p –
* r –
* s –
* t –
* w –
* y –
Notes
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 Kaipuleohone is a digital ethnographic archive that houses audio and visual files, photographs, as well as hundreds of textual material such as notes, dictionaries, and transcriptions relating to small and endangered languages. The archive is stored ...
holds two open access collections that include Balingian language materials (
RB1-002 and
RB2-003-E) as well as
notebook pages of stories
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melanau Language
Languages of Brunei
Languages of Malaysia
Melanau–Kajang languages