Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 22, 2026

Merap language

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 as a Kayan–Murik (Modang-Bahau) language.

Last revised
Jul 22, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
270 w
Citations
5
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Merap
Mbraa / Mpraa
Native toIndonesia
RegionLangap, South Malinau, Malinau, North Kalimantan
EthnicityMerap
Native speakers
(200 cited 1981)1
Language codes
ISO 639-3puc
Glottologmera1243
ELPPunan Merap

Merap (Mbraa) is an Austronesian language, spoken in the village of Langap in South Malinau district, Malinau Regency, North Kalimantan, Indonesia.2 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.3
  • /ɡ/ except after /ŋ/ is rare, and occurs only in loanwords.4

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/.4
References

References

Notes

  1. Merap at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Smith 2017, p. 143.
  3. Smith 2017, p. 157.
  4. Smith 2017, p. 160.

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.