12 Chapter 2 Phonology
labial^ dental^1 /^
alveolarretroflex^2 palatal velar glottalstop: (^)
voiceless p t. c k
vl aspirated p t. c k
voiced b d ḍ g (^)
nasal m n (^)
fricative (f) s (h)
liquid l,r (^)
glide (w) (j) (w) (^)
Notable in the consonantal inventory is the set of stops in Madurese. Leaving
aside the glottal stop, there are five places of articulation for oral stops. Of the
languages most closely related to Madurese, this is true only of Javanese, which
has stops at the same places of articulation. It is not true of Indonesian, Bali-
nese, or Sundanese. Additionally, there is a three-way contrast in phonation at
each of the five places of articulation. The most-closely related languages, in-
cluding Javanese, have only a two-way contrast in the series of stops, either
voiceless unaspirated and voiced or voiceless unaspirated and breathy, a type
not present in Madurese.
Following is a description of the consonant phonemes.
/p/ voiceless bilabial stop
[p] in syllable-initial position
[paman] ‘uncle’
[ḍɤpa] ‘arrive’
(^1) Although the oral stops have dental articulation, the dental diacritic will not be in-
cluded here as no confusion should arise from its omission.
(^2) Rather than using the IPA symbols for the retroflex consonants, the. diacritic signals
retroflex articulation, which is consistent with the orthographic tradition as well as pre-
vious studies (e.g. Stevens 1968, Moehnilabib et al. 1979, Budi et al. 1986/87, and Cohn
& Lockwood 1994).