A Grammar of Madurese

Vowel inventory and distribution 33

The forms in (26) further illustrate the pattern with surface root and actor
voice forms, demonstrating its regularity.

(26) underlying surface root actor voice
/kɛrɛm/ [kɛrɛm] [ɛrɛm] ‘send’

/kɛpa/ [kipɤ] [ɛpɤ] ‘carry’
/parɛksa/ [parɛksa] [marɛksa] ‘examine’
/baca/ [bɤca] [maca] ‘read’
/amən/ [amən] [namən] ‘plant’

/ḍapa/ [ḍɤpa] [napaɛ] ‘arrive’

/tɔlɛ/ [ɔlɛ] [nɔlɛ] ‘write’

/tɔɔ/ [tuttu] [nɔu] ‘point’
/bəllɛ/ [bɨlli] [məll] ‘buy’

An alternative to the nasal actor voice prefix is the actor prefix a-, which
occurs with specific transitive roots (predominantly roots with initial aspirated
or voiced stops).^19 Occasionally these roots take the - prefix (especially in the
Western dialect), and when they do, the vowel optionally follows the vowel
height generalization. For example, with the root [pukɛ] ‘prove’, the standard

actor voice form is [apukɛ]. However, some speakers also use the - prefix. In

this case, the form [mɔkɛ] is predicted, as the non-high variant of the back vo-

wel should follow the nasal [m], and speakers occasionally produce this form.
However, speakers also produce [muktɛ], which employs the nasal prefix but
maintains the high vowel of the root. Other examples are:

(27) root surface root a- prefix - prefix

/bɔkka/ ‘open’ [bukka] [abukka] [mɔkka] ~ [mukka]

/kɔrɛ/ ‘fry’ [kuri] [akuri] [ɔrɛ] ~ [uri]

/ɛkal/ ‘remain’ [ikɤl] [aikɤl] [nɛkɤl] ~ [nikɤl]

Clearly, the pairs of vowels represent allophonic alternation, and only one
from each pair is a true phoneme. Given the wider distribution of the non-high
vowels, //, //, /a/ and // can reasonably be assumed to be the underlying vo-

wels, a conclusion reached by Stevens (1968, 1980) and Cohn (1993a,b) as
well. The high variants are derived by a regular process variously referred to as
Vowel Tensing (Stevens 1994) or Vowel Raising (Cohn 1993). As outlined
above, descriptively, vowels are tensed or raised following voiced and aspirated
stops. Trigo (1991) and Cohn (1993a) have proposed formal phonological ana-

(^19) The a- prefix is also used with the majority of active intransitive verbs. See Chapter 9.