Melanau is an
Austronesian language spoken in the coastal area of the
Rajang delta on northwest Borneo,
Sarawak
Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...
,
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
and
Brunei
Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...
. 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