16 Chapter 2 Phonology
/ɲ/ voiced palatal nasal
[ɲ] in syllable-initial position, does not occur in syllable-final position
(except geminates)
[ɲaman] ‘delicious’
[taɲa] ‘ask’
// voiced velar nasal
[] in syllable-initial and syllable-final position
[ara] ‘possible’
[aɛs] ‘cry’
[sənnə] ‘happy’
[sɛkɔ] ‘I’
/s/ voiceless alveolar fricative
[s] in syllable-initial and syllable-final position
[sakɛ] ‘sick’
[sampɛ] ‘until’
[alas] ‘forest’
[maskɛ] ‘although’
/r/ voiced alveolar trill
[r] in syllable-initial and syllable-final position
[raɤ] ‘large’
[sɔra] ‘letter’
[kapɤr] ‘news’
[kəras] ‘paper’
/l/ voiced alveolar lateral approximant
[l] in syllable-initial and syllable-final position
[lɛɛr] ‘neck’
[alas] ‘forest’
[bɤnal] ‘pillow’
[unɛl] ‘skilled’
The glides [j] and [w] have a special status. [j] is phonemic only in word-
final position of native Madurese words, such as [sɔaj] ‘river’, [kaakuj]
‘for’, and others. In other native words, [j] is not phonemic. An epenthesis
process described in section 5.1 is largely responsible for its occurrence in in-
tervocalic environments. Word-initial [j] occurs in some loanwords.