Urak Lawoiʼ language explained

Urak Lawoiʼ
Nativename:	อูรักลาโวยจ
States:	Thailand
Region:	Phuket, Langta islands
Ethnicity:	Urak Lawoiʼ
Speakers:	5,000
Date:	2012
Ref:	e18
Script:	Thai script (usually oral)
Minority:	native to provinces of Phuket, Krabi, Satun
Agency:	Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia, Mahidol University
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam2:	Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:	(disputed)
Iso3:	urk
Glotto:	urak1238
Glottorefname:	Urak Lawoiʼ

Urak Lawoiʼ or Urak Lawoc (Urak Lawoiʼ:, pronounced as /ˈurʌk ˈlawʊjʔ/) is a Malayic language spoken in southern Thailand.

The Orang (Suku) Laut who live between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula speak divergent Malayic lects, which bear some intriguing connections to various Sumatran Malay varieties.^[1]

Phonology and orthography

Vowels

Vowel table
	Front	Central	Back
High	/pronounced as /ink//		/pronounced as /ink//
Mid	/pronounced as /ink//	/pronounced as /ink// [ə~{{IPAlink\|ɨ}}~{{IPAlink\|ɯ}}]	/pronounced as /ink//
Low	/pronounced as /ink//	/pronounced as /ink//	/pronounced as /ink//

In closed syllables, some vowels change their quality:
- pronounced as //a// becomes pronounced as /[ʌ]/ (pronounced as //ˈrawak// pronounced as /[ˈraˑwʌk]/ 'space').
- pronounced as //i// becomes pronounced as /[ɪ]/ (pronounced as //ˈbaliʔ// pronounced as /[ˈbaˑlɪʔ]/ 'return').
- pronounced as //o// becomes pronounced as /[ʊ]/ (pronounced as //ˈproc// pronounced as /[ˈprʊiʔ]/ 'stomach').
Epenthetic pronounced as //j// and pronounced as //w// are added after high vowels pronounced as //i/, /u// respectively (pronounced as //ˈsiˑjak// 'light', pronounced as //ˈbuˑwak// 'to throw away').
Vowels are somewhat allophonically lengthened in stressed open syllables.
Vowels other than pronounced as //ə// are slightly nasalized after nasal consonants. If the following syllable has pronounced as //w/, /j// as the onset, this onset is also nasalized (pronounced as //məˈnaŋɛh// pronounced as /[məˈnãˑŋɛ̃h]/ 'to cry', pronounced as //ˈɲawa// pronounced as /[ˈɲãˑw̃ã]/ 'body, self').

Thai (long & short)! Latin! IPA
◌า	◌ั	a	pronounced as //a//
แ◌	แ◌	ä	pronounced as //ɛ//
เ◌อ	เ◌ิ	e	pronounced as //ə/ [ə~ɨ~ɯ]/
เ◌	เ◌	ë	pronounced as //e//
◌ี	◌ิ	i	pronounced as //i//
โ◌	โ◌ or absent	o	pronounced as //o//
◌อ	◌อ	ö	pronounced as //ɔ//
◌ู	◌ุ	u	pronounced as //u//

Notes: In the Thai script, the left column represents diacritics for open syllables, while the right one for closed syllables. For syllables with vowel ö, before consonants k, m, n, ng, p, and t, the vowel is not written. Similarly, the diacritic for a is not used before q. Any vowels with separate closed syllable diacritics have an inherent value of pronounced as //-ʔ// when not used with a succeeding consonant.

Consonants

Consonant table
		Labial	Alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	Aspirated	/pronounced as /ink// พ	/pronounced as /ink// ท	/pronounced as /ink// [{{IPAlink\|t͡ɕʰ}}] ช	/pronounced as /ink// ค
	Voiceless	/pronounced as /ink// ป	/pronounced as /ink// ต	/pronounced as /ink// [{{IPAlink\|t͡ɕ}}] จ	/pronounced as /ink// ก	/pronounced as /ink// อ
	Voiced	/pronounced as /ink// บ	/pronounced as /ink// ด	/pronounced as /ink// [{{IPAlink\|d͡ʒ}}] ยฺ	/pronounced as /ink// กฺ
Fricative		/pronounced as /ink// ฟ	/pronounced as /ink// ซ			/pronounced as /ink// ฮ
Nasal		/pronounced as /ink// ม	/pronounced as /ink// น	/pronounced as /ink// ญ	/pronounced as /ink// ง
Lateral			/pronounced as /ink// ล
Semivowel		/pronounced as /ink// ว	/pronounced as /ink// ร	/pronounced as /ink// ย

pronounced as /[t͡ɕ]/ and pronounced as /[t͡ɕʰ]/ allophones are influenced by Thai, whereas pronounced as /[d͡ʒ]/ is influenced by Malay.
Aspirated consonants and pronounced as //f// only appear in loanwords (mostly from Thai).
Phonetically, pronounced as //-c// and pronounced as //-s// is pronounced pronounced as /[-jʔ]/, and pronounced as /[-jh]/ (after back vowels and pronounced as //a//) or pronounced as /[-h]/ (after front vowels), respectively, syllable-finally.
pronounced as //l// becomes pronounced as /[l]/ after pronounced as //i/, /ə//, otherwise pronounced as /[ɭ]/ in syllable-final positions (pronounced as //ˈlihəl// pronounced as /[ˈliˑhəl]/ 'space' vs. pronounced as //ˈbumɔl// pronounced as /[ˈbuˑmɔɭ]/ 'doctor').
pronounced as //ər// is compensatorily lengthened to phonetically long pronounced as /[əə]/. In stressed positions, the vowel cluster fluctuates between pronounced as /[ɽ], [ər], [rə]/.
The coda stop pronounced as //k// after a front vowel becomes pronounced as /[kx]/ (pronounced as //ˈkamek// pronounced as /[ˈkaˑmekx]/ 'sheep').
Syllable-initial stops pronounced as //p/, /b//, with the same syllable containing a back vowel and coda pronounced as //c//, are labialized to pronounced as //pw// and pronounced as //bw// respectively (pronounced as //səˈboc// pronounced as /[səˈbwʊjʔ]/ 'to utter').

Finals
IPA	pronounced as //-k// pronounced as /[-k̚]/	pronounced as //-ŋ//	pronounced as //-t// pronounced as /[-t̚]/	pronounced as //-n//	pronounced as //-p// pronounced as /[-p̚]/	pronounced as //-m//	pronounced as //-j//	pronounced as //-c// pronounced as /[-jʔ]/	pronounced as //-s// pronounced as /[-jh]/	pronounced as //-w//	pronounced as //-h//	pronounced as //-l/*/
Thai	-ก	-ง	-ด	-น	-บ	-ม	-ย	-ยจ	-ยฮ	-ว	-ฮ	-ล*
Latin	-k	-ng	-t	-n	-p	-m	-y	-c	-s	-w	-h	-l*

pronounced as //-j// and pronounced as //-w// can be treated as a part of diphthongs or triphthongs.
pronounced as //-l// only exists in the Phuket dialect.

Stress and intonation

Urak Lawoiʼ does not have tones, except in Thai loans. Words are usually stressed in penultimate syllable, except if the expected stress is placed on the pre-syllable (e.g. open syllables containing pronounced as //ə//, but not pronounced as //ər//) the stress moves into the next syllable. Urak Lawoiʼ also has global intonation — for instance, interrogative sentences have rising intonation and negative sentences have lower-pitch intonation.

Notes and References

Anderbeck . Karl . 2012 . Notes on Malayic Suku Laut Dialectology (abstract) . ISMIL 16 conference presentation . https://web.archive.org/web/20140714180028/http://wwwstaff.eva.mpg.de/~gil/ismil/16/abstracts/Anderbeck.pdf . 2014-07-14 . 2014-07-02 . live.