Melanau language ancient consonant phoneme

This article discusses on the effort to reconstruct the ancient consonant phoneme form of a language assumed to exist in Sarawak which is called the Ancient Melanau Language (BMLP). BMLP reconstruction was conducted using the qualitative comparative method . This qualitative comparative method begins with the determination of cognate words, the construction of correspondence paradigm, searching for phonemic recurrence, and ends with the determination of the ancient phonemes of the language. When the ancient phonemes in each correspondence paradigm are obtained, then all at once the ancient morphemes for the correspondence paradigm are also obtained. Thirteen Melanau variants (VM) in Sarawak were used as the basis of this comparison , namely, Bintulu (BT), Balingian (BLGN), Mukah (MKH), Oya (OA), Igan (IGN), Dalat (DLT), Matu (MT), Daro (DO), Medong (MDG), UD River (UD River), Rajang (RJG), Kanowit (KNWT) and Tanjong (TJG). The study result proved that the reconstructed BMLP has 18 anc ient phonemes namely, four voiceless plosive consonants of *p, *t, *k and * ʔ , three voiced plosive consonants of *b, *d and *g, a voiced affricate consonant *d ʒ , two voiceless fricative consonants *s and *h, four nasal consonants *m, *n, * ɲ and ŋ , a trill voiced consonant *r , a lateral voiced consonant *l and two semi - vowel consonants *w and *j. This low - level reconstruction study has directly pioneered the effort to reconstruct the BMLP on a higher level that is, comparing the BMLP with the Ancient Polynes ian Malay language (PMP).