A Grammar of Madurese

40 Chapter 2 Phonology

nɛa  nɛa  [neã’intend’

 ɛa+ɛ  ɛãe’remember’

As it is unimportant to points which follow, nasalization is not marked on vo-
wels.

5. Phonological processes

There are a number of process that derive surface structures from underlying
phonemic forms.

5.1 Epenthesis

There are three principal processes that insert consonants between two conti-
guous vowels.

Glottal insertion. A glottal stop is epenthesized between 2 identical vowels, ei-
ther at a morpheme boundary or root internally, which has the effect in (38).

(38) 0/  / V 1 __ V 1

(39) sakɔla + an  [sakɔlaan] ‘school’

matɛ + ɛ  [maɛɛ] ‘kill’

In the word for ‘school’, [sakɔlaan], [] is inserted between the root-final [a] of

[sakɔla] and the suffix-initial [a] of [an]. In [matɛɛ] ‘kill’, [] is inserted be-

tween the root-final [ɛ] of [maɛ] and the suffix [ɛ]. Other examples include:

(40) maca + a  [macaa] ‘will read’

abɤlɤ + aki  [abɤlɤɤki]^24 ‘tell about’
bɨrsɛ + ɛ  [bɨrsɛɛ] ‘clean’

(^24) With the suffix -aki, one actually finds variation between [abɤlɤɤki] and
[ablaki], in which the initial vowel of the suffix does not undergo the harmony
rule. Stevens (1994) attributes this optionality to the fact that the form aki can be more
closely bound to the root as a suffix, resulting in [abɤlɤɤki] (in this case), or more
loosely bound, almost as an independent word, resulting in [abɤlɤaki].