Berawan is an Austronesian language spoken in eastern Sarawak, Malaysia.
Dialects Lakiput Narom Lelak Dali Miri long teran Belait Tutong Long Terawan Long Tutoh Mulu Caves
Distribution Baram (Tutoh-Tinjar) Batu Bela (Sungai Merah / Lower Tutoh) Long Terawan (Middle Tutoh) Long Teru (Lower Tinjar) Long Jegan (Middle Tinjar) Long Teran Long Tabing Long Takong Loagan Bunut National Park Long Patan Long Palo (Tutoh) Long Kuk
Reconstruction Proto-Berawan is the reconstructed proto-language of all Berawan language varieties. Its phonology has been extensively reconstructed by Jürgen M. Burkhardt in 2014.
Sound changes from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Severe limitations on antepenult syllables All preantepenult syllables were lost in Proto-Berawan: *kalapani > *ləpineʔ > metathesised *pəlineʔ 'swallow (bird)'. Following this stage, all vowels in antepenult syllables were neutralised into *ə: *tinaʔi > *tənaʔeʔ 'small intestines'.
Vowel changes in penult syllables The vowel *i, when preceding a vowel, inserted a glide in between, followed by other developments (*-iy- > *-iyy- > *-əyy- > *-əjj-). Meanwhile, *ə largely did not change during Proto-Berawan stage, but it geminated the following consonant (*pənuq > *pənno 'full'). The only exceptions were in word-initial position, in two words changed early into *a (*əzan, *əmbaw > *acciən 'notched log ladder', *appiəw 'high'), while in two others simply deleted it (*əpat, *əsuŋ > *pat 'four', *coŋ 'rice mortar').
When following other consonants, *a remains, but when following voiced (*b, *β, *d, *z, *g) or palatal (*j, *ñ, *y) consonants, it became *i instead (*batu > *bittoh 'stone', *ia > *jiəh '(s)he/it'). The consonant *l did not block the raising (*balu > *billoh 'widow').
References
Bibliography
External links Kaipuleohone has an open access collection of materials (RB2-003) that includes notes on Berawan.