A Grammar of Madurese

28 Chapter 2 Phonology

or [n].^15 Some examples follow.

(18) [alɔ] ‘brazier’, [bulɔn] ‘type of tree’, [cɔlɛt] ‘type of lamp’,

[salɛ ‘kick’ [sɔlɔt] ‘peel’
[pɤsa] ‘like’, [t.usə ‘nasal sound’, [kɤsɛ] ‘grind’,

[sasara] ‘difficult’

[bɤlɤrat] ‘scratched’, [carəp ‘submerged’, [ɔrt] ‘decrease’,

[tɔrap] ‘sprout all at once’

[pamrɛ] ‘reward’
[jumla] ‘sum’
[lɛnra] ‘fence’

Phonetic vowel clusters are relatively limited. Sequences of identical vo-
wels are disrupted by glottal stop epenthesis (section 5.1) and [j]-epenthesis be-
tween the object voice prefix [ɛ] and the locative prepostional clitic [] ‘at’ (sec-

tions 5 & 6). And sequences of non-like vowels where the first vowel is either
front or back are disrupted by glide epenthesis (section 5). There are no V se-

quences, as ə only occurs in closed syllables. Finally, [aɨ] and [ə] are, to the

best of my knowledge, unattested. Thus, the only surface vowel clusters that are
found are [aɛ], [aɔ], [ɤi] and [ɤu], as in

(19) [paɛ ‘bitter’ [aɛ ‘feces’

[aɔn] ‘year’ [paɔ] ‘mango’

[bɤi] ‘else’ [cɤi] ‘ginger’

[ḍɤun] ‘leaf’ [cɤu] ‘far’

(^15) There are cases of what appear to be clusters of [ml], [mr], [ms], [nr] and [ns]. How-
ever, they are quite limited (perhaps fewer than 20) and they clearly arise from redupli-
cation of a monosyllabic root to form the preferred disyllabic root. Four examples are:
(i) [ləmləm] ‘calm’
[rɔmrɔm] ‘submerged in water’
[ranran] ‘yank’
[sɔnsɔn] ‘smoke from incense’