Merap (Mbraa) is an Austronesian language, spoken in the village of 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 Fricative Nasal Lateral Trill is pronounced as implosive in the coda of final syllables. except after is rare, and occurs only in loanwords.
Vowels Front Central Back Close Mid Open Diphthongs Triphthongs The distinction between and only occurs in final syllables before glottals and .
References Notes
Bibliography
Soriente, Antonia. 2015. Mbraa: A Modang-Bahau language? Presentation given at 13-ICAL, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.