Merap language

Merap
Mbraa / Mpraa
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Langap, South Malinau, Malinau, North Kalimantan
Ethnicity	Merap
Native speakers	(200 cited 1981)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Greater North Borneo Kayanic Murik–Merap Merap
Language codes
ISO 639-3	puc
Glottolog	mera1243
ELP	Punan Merap

Merap (Mbraa) is an Austronesian language, spoken in the village of Langap in South Malinau district, Malinau Regency, North Kalimantan, Indonesia. Soriente (2015) classifies Mbraa (also known as Merap) as a Kayan–Murik (Modang-Bahau) language.

Phonology

Merap phonology has departed significantly from Proto-Malayo Polynesian. Merap stress is word-final, and word shape is sesquisyllabic (a minor penultimate syllable followed by a stressed full ultima). The number of vowel contrasts has increased significantly as well. Where Proto-Malayo-Polynesian had four vowels (*i, *u, *a, and *ə) Merap has well over twenty contrasts, including diphthongs, triphthongs, and nasality distinctions.

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p b	t d	c ɟ	k ɡ	ʔ
Fricative		s			h
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Lateral		l
Trill		r

• /b/ is pronounced as implosive [ɓ] in the offset of final syllables.
• /ɡ/ except after /ŋ/ is rare, and occurs only in loanwords.

Vowels

		Front	Central		Back
			short	long
Close		i			u
Mid		ɛ	ə		o
Open			a	aː
Diphthongs	closing	iw ɛj əw ae̯ ai̯ ao̯ au̯ oj uj
	centering	iə̯ aə̯ uə̯
	nasalised	ĩə̯ ãə̯ ũə̯
Triphthongs		ɛjə̯ ajə̯ awə̯ ojə̯

• The distinction between /a/ and /aː/ only occurs in final syllables before glottals /ʔ/ and /h/.

References

Bibliography

• Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "Merap Historical Phonology" (PDF). Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (1).
• Soriente, Antonia. 2015. Mbraa: A Modang-Bahau language? Presentation given at 13-ICAL, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.