Basic inventory 17
/j/ palatal semi-vowel
[j] in syllable-initial and syllable-final position
[nɛjat] ‘intend’
[rɔpɛja] ‘rupiah’
[tamɔj] ‘guest’
Word-internal [w] is also primarily a result of epenthesis. Pawitra (2009) lists
36 w-initial entries in his dictionary (Safioden gives just 19), the majority of
which are borrowings.^4 [w] does not occur in syllable-final position.
/w/ labio-velar semi-vowel (19 w-initial words in dictionary)
[w] in syllable-initial position (largely non-phonemic)
[waip] ‘obliged’ (Arabic)
[wawancara] ‘interview’ (Indonesia wawancara)
[wɔrəl] ‘carrot’ (Dutch wortel)
The phones [h] and [f] occur in borrowings. [h] occurs primarily in initial
position in words that are largely of Arabic origin. There are 67 entries for h in
Pawitra 2009 and 38 in Safioedin 1977.
/h/ glottal fricative
[h] in syllable-initial position
[haḍirin] ‘audience’ (Arabic)
[hɔrma] ‘honor’ (Indonesian hormat)
[hɔtɛl] ‘hotel’
[f] occurs in loanwords from a variety of languages. Pawitra list 29 for f in his
dictionary and Safioedin 17 in his.
/f/ labiodental fricative (17 f-initial words in dictionary)
[foto] ‘photograph’
[fana] ‘transitory’ (Arabic)
[fardu] ‘duty’ (Arabic)
(^4) While phonemic /w/ in loanwords is not limited to word-initial position (e.g. [wawan-
cara] ‘interview’ from Indonesian), the relatively small number of dictionary entries is
indicative of the circumscribed nature of its use. This is true of other ‘non-native’ pho-
nemes described below.