Phonological processes 45
root, the vowel can optionally be deleted in an open syllable when preceded by
a consonant and followed by an approximant, a liquid or a glide.^28 This can be
very informally represented as:
(55) V 0/ / #C __ [ CV (C)V(C)
[LIQUID/GLIDE]
This process creates the majority of the complex onsets found in Madurese. Its
operation with liquids is illustrated in (56).
(56) bɤlɤntɤ [blɤntɤ] ‘Dutch’
bɤrɤmpa [brɤmpa] ‘how much’
tɤlubɤ [tlubɤ] ‘paper’
malara [mlara] ‘miserable’
karaɔwan [kraɔwan] ‘palace/kingdom’
paraɔ [praɔ] ‘ship’
salamə [slamə] ‘safe’
sarɛkɤp [srɛkɤp] ‘energetic’
Vowel deletion with glides is exemplified in (57). By convention, the glides are
inserted via the glide epenthesis operation described above (section 5.1). Thus
this deletion process takes place only in intermediate forms. Examples include:
(57) kɔacɛ kɔwacɛ [kwacɛ ‘magpie’
pɛara pɛjara [pjara] ‘look after’
sɔara sɔwara [swara] ‘sound/voice’
The results of the dialect study of Sutoko et al. (1998) indicate that for the
lexical items which they tested this form of elision is particularly widespread in
the Bangkalan, Sampang and Pamekasan areas.^29
(^28) As pointed out to me by Cathie Ringen, this process likely represents some pressure
for trisyllabic roots to conform to the highly favored disyllabic form, deleting the vowel
of the first syllable when the resulting cluster does not violate sonority sequencing of
having a less sonorous consonant precede a more sonorous one.
(^29) As pointed out to me by Jill Beckman, a plausible alternative analysis of (54) would
be to derive the surface forms directly from the underlying forms via a gliding process
in which /ɔ/ surfaces as [w] and /ɛ/ surfaces as [j].