Melanau is an Austronesian language spoken in the coastal area of the Rajang delta on northwest Borneo, Sarawak, Malaysia and Brunei. There are several dialects—Mukah-Oya, Balingian, Bruit, Dalat, Lawas, Igan, Sarikei, Segahan, Prehan, Segalang, and Siteng.Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Phonology
Consonants Melanau has the following consonants.Clayre 1970.
Bilabial Coronal Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal Nasals Plosives andaffricates voiceless voiced Fricatives , Lateral Trills Semivowels
Vowels Melanau has the following vowels.
front central backrounded High Mid Low
Sounds can have allophones of [ ~ ].Clayre 1972.
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 holds two open access collections that include Balingian language materials (RB1-002 and RB2-003-E) as well as notebook pages of stories