Melanau language

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Melanau
Spoken in	Malaysia, Brunei
Region	Sarawak and neighboring Brunei
Total speakers	30,099
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Northwest Borneo Melanau-Kajang Melanau
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	–
ISO 639-3	mel
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Melanau is an Austronesian language spoken in the coastal area of the Rejang delta on northwest Borneo, Sarawak, Malaysia and Brunei. There are several dialects--Mukah-Oya, Balingian, Bruit, Dalat, Igan, Sarikei, Segahan, Prehan, Segalang, and Siteng.^[1]

Contents 1 Phonology 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Vowels 2 Notes 3 References

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Consonants

Melanau has the following consonants.^[2]

		Bilabial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stops and affricates	Voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k		ʔ
	Voiced	b	d	dʒ	g
Fricatives			s				h, hʲ
Nasals		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Lateral			l
Trills			r			ʀ
Semivowels		w		j

[edit] Vowels

Melanau has the following vowels.^[2]

	front	central	back rounded
High	i		u
Mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Low		a

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• I.F.C.S. Clayre. 1970. "The Spelling of Melanau (nee Milano)," The Sarawak Museum Journal 18:330-352.