/ɛ,ɔ/ are heard as more closed [e,o] when occurring before glides /w,j/.[3]
Phonological history
Southeast Babar is notable for its drastic phonetic reshapings of inherited Austronesian vocabulary, with extensive consonant loss, unusual reflexes of surviving consonants, and
syncope and
apocope of vowels. Many of these changes are outlined and exemplified by Hein Steinhauer as follows:[3]
Changes to consonants
Consonant loss
Elision of consonants in all historical positions is extensive throughout Southeast Babar. Ancestral Proto-Malayo-Polynesian sounds like *p, *k, *q, *R, *h*j and *z were simply lost in Southeast Babar with some exceptions.
Examples of consonant deletions include:
The loss of *k led to a pull
chain shift. Subsequently, *t shifted to k except if the *t was directly preceded by original *n; unshifted *t before *n is known from *punti > uty "banana". In turn, k produced from *tlenited to /x/ unless the *k was:
Word-final when protected by a consonant that now immediately precedes the k due to syncope:
*laŋit > lalk "sky, heavens", *ma-bəʀ(əq)at > berk "heavy"
Lenited reflexes of *t > k > x include *teliŋa > xlil "ear", *mata > mox "eye", *ma-qitəm > mexm "black", *matay > -moxy "to die", *batu > waxy "stone", and *(h)əpat > wo-ax "4".
Afterwards, *s subsequently underwent
fortition to t, with examples including:
*sulu > tuly "torch"
*susu > -tuty "milk"
*asu > uty "dog".
*panas > pant "warm"
Merger of *n, *ŋ and *l
The inherited Malayo-Polynesian nasal consonants *n and *ŋ merge with each other as *n, followed by a merger of that merged phoneme with *l, generally surfacing as /l/.
*ta-kaən > *ka-an > kaːl "you and I eat"
*teliŋa > xlil "ear"
*nipən > *lipəl > *liəl > lil "tooth"
*laŋit > lalk "sky, heavens".
Post-merger /l/ subsequently underwent an inverse development to n when adjacent to t either originating from *s or borrowed from another language. This circular development leads to roots and inflectional affixes to synchronically contain alternations between l and n.
English bottle > Indonesian botol > Southeast Babar potn
A few cases of n failing to merge with l are known, mainly in monosyllabic words where, due to medial consonant deletion and resulting vowel coalescence, there is simultaneously there is one n in the onset and a second n in the coda.
*ŋajan > non "name"
*na-kaən > *na-an > noːn "(s)he eats"
Due to *nipən "tooth" surfacing as lil and not **nin, Steinhauer suggests that the loss of *p occurred after the loss of *j and *k.
Changes to vowels
Reduction and loss of final vowels
All word-final *ə and *a, whether inherited as word-final or secondarily word-final due to the loss of a following consonant, are
deleted in Southeast Babar.
Originally word-final: *lima > lim "hand", *mata > mox "eye", *dua > wu-ru "2"
Word-final high vowels *-u and *-i generally reduce to the glide /j/. Like with *a, the loss of a following consonant will make the high vowel count as word-final for the purposes of this reduction.
*a surfaces as o after nasal consonants. However, this change is blocked in the first-person singular of verbs, where a /j/ is infixed in the verbal root. Contrast:
*ku-malip > i-myaly "I laugh" (rounding blocked by infixed -y-)
*na-malip > l-moly "(s)he laughs" (with rounding after nasal).
If an *a is not word-initial nor is not subject to apocope or syncope, it will remain as a.
^Taber, Mark (1993). "Toward a better understanding of the Indigenous Languages of Southwestern Maluku". Oceanic Linguistics. 32 (2): 389–441.
JSTOR3623199.
^
abSteinhauer, Hein (2009). The sounds of Southeast Babar. Adelaar, K. Alexander and Pawley, Andrew (eds.), Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: a festschrift for Robert Blust: Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. pp. 399–409.