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Merap (Mbraa) is an Austronesian language, spoken in the village of Langap [id] in South Malinau district, Malinau Regency, North Kalimantan, Indonesia.[2] 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 (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

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop p b t d c ɟ k ɡ ʔ
Fricative s h
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Lateral l
Trill r
  • /b/ is pronounced as implosive [ɓ] in the offset of final syllables.[3]
  • /ɡ/ except after /ŋ/ is rare, and occurs only in loanwords.[4]

Vowels

Front Central Back
short long
Close i u
Mid ɛ ə o
Open a aː
Diphthongs closing iw ɛj əw ae̯ ai̯ ao̯ au̯ oj uj
centering iə̯ aə̯ uə̯
nasalised ĩə̯ ãə̯ ũə̯
Triphthongs ɛjə̯ ajə̯ awə̯ ojə̯
  • The distinction between /a/ and /aː/ only occurs in final syllables before glottals /ʔ/ and /h/.[4]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Merap at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Smith 2017, p. 143.
  3. ^ Smith 2017, p. 157.
  4. ^ a b Smith 2017, p. 160.

Bibliography

  • Smith, Alexander D. (2017). “Merap Historical Phonology” (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (1).
  • Soriente, Antonia. 2015. Mbraa: A Modang-Bahau language? Presentation given at 13-ICAL, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.