A Grammar of Madurese

24 Chapter 2 Phonology

At other times, precisely the opposite obtains–cognates in which Madurese has
a high vowel where Indonesian has a mid vowel.

(8) Madurese Indonesian
[tisa] [desa] ‘village’

[kitɛ] [getek] ‘raft’

[iir] [eer] ‘row’
[puṭu] [bodoh] ‘stupid’

There are however, ample examples of the same vowel surfacing in both lan-
guages.

(9) Madurese Indonesian
[bukka] [buka] ‘open
[diri] [diri] ‘stand’

[kɔntan] [kontan] ‘cash’
[tɛnɔ] [teno] ‘a type of basket’

For the most part, non-high vowels (ɛ, ə, a, ɔ) do not occur following voiceless
aspirated and voiced stops and high vowels (i, ɤ, ɨ, u) occur only in the envi-
ronment after voiceless aspirated and voiced stops. This regularity accounts for
the vowel correspondences illustrated in (6-7). For example, consider the Madu-
rese and Indonesian words for ‘raft’ in (8), [kitɛ] and [getek]. The vowels in

the second syllable in both are mid front vowels. However, the mid front vowel
of the first syllable of the Indonesian word is a high front vowel in Madurese,
owing to the fact that it follows a voiceless aspirated stop [k]. This pattern re-

curs in the other data in (7-8). The system of alternating vowels in Madurese is
discussed in detail in section 4.
There are two other notable vowel correspondences that occur sporadical-
ly. In one case, Indonesian // occurs as /a/ in Madurese.^12 This occurs only in

open syllables and is due in part to the fact that Madurese // occurs only in

closed syllables, as discussed in section 3.

(10) Madurese Indonesian
[ka] [kə] ‘to’
[carɛta] [ərita] ‘story’
[parɛksa] [pəriksa] ‘examine’

(^12) These correspondences again largely reflect the development of Proto-Malayo-
Polynesian vowels in the two languages. See Stevens 1966.