Urak Lawoi’ or Urak Lawoc (Urak Lawoi': อูรักลาโวยจ, IPA: [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.[2]

Phonology and orthography

Vowels

Vowel table[3]
Front Central Back
High /i/ /u/
Mid /e/ /ə/ [ə~ɨ~ɯ] /o/
Low /ɛ/ /a/ /ɔ/
  • In closed syllables, some vowels change their quality:
    • /a/ becomes [ʌ] (/ˈrawak/ [ˈraˑwʌk] 'space').
    • /i/ becomes [ɪ] (/ˈbaliʔ/ [ˈbaˑlɪʔ] 'return').
    • /o/ becomes [ʊ] (/ˈproc/ [ˈprʊiʔ] 'stomach').
  • Epenthetic /j/ and /w/ were added after high vowels /i/, /u/, respectively (/ˈsiˑjak/ 'light', /ˈbuˑwak/ 'to throw away').
  • Vowels are somewhat lengthened in stressed open syllables allophonically.
  • Vowels other than /ə/ are slightly nasalized after nasal consonant, next syllables containing /w/, /j/ in upsets are further nasalized (/məˈnaŋɛh/ [məˈnãˑŋɛ̃h] 'to cry', /ˈɲawa/ [ˈɲãˑw̃ã] 'body, self').
Orthography (ordered according to Latin letters)
Thai (long & short) Latin IPA
◌า ◌ั a /a/
แ◌ แ◌ ä /ɛ/
เ◌อ เ◌ิ e /ə/ [ə~ɨ~ɯ]
เ◌ เ◌ ë /e/
◌ี ◌ิ i /i/
โ◌ โ◌ or absent o /o/
◌อ ◌อ ö /ɔ/
◌ู ◌ุ u /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 reflected. Similarly, the diacritic for a is not used before q. Any vowels with separate closed syllable diacritics have inherent value of /-ʔ/ when not used with succeeding consonant.

Consonants

Consonant table[4][5]
Labial Alveolar Alveolo-palatal Velar Glottal
Stop Aspirated /pʰ/ พ /tʰ/ ท /cʰ/ [t͡ɕʰ] ช /kʰ/ ค
Voiceless /p/ ป /t/ ต /c/ [t͡ɕ] จ /k/ ก /ʔ/ อ
Voiced /b/ บ /d/ ด /ɟ/ [d͡ʒ] ยฺ /ɡ/ กฺ
Fricative /f/ ฟ /s/ ซ /h/ ฮ
Nasal /m/ ม /n/ น /ɲ/ ญ /ŋ/ ง
Lateral /l/ ล
Semivowel /w/ ว /r/ ร /j/ ย
  • [t͡ɕ] and [t͡ɕʰ] allophones are influenced by Thai, whereas [d͡ʒ] is influenced by Malay.
  • Aspirated consonants and /f/ only appear in loanwords (that are mostly from Thai).
  • Phonetically, /-c/ and /-s/ is pronounced [-jʔ], and [-jh] (after back vowels and /a/) or [-h] (after front vowels), respectively, in syllable finals.
  • /l/ becomes [l] after /i/, /ə/, otherwise [ɭ] in syllable-final positions (/ˈlihəl/ [ˈliˑhəl] 'space' vs. /ˈbumɔl/ [ˈbuˑmɔɭ] 'doctor').
  • /ər/ is compensatorily lengthened to phonetically long [əə]. In stressed positions, the vowel cluster fluctuates between [ɽ], [ər], [rə].
  • The coda stop /k/ after a front vowel becomes [kx] (/ˈkamek/ [ˈkaˑmekx] 'sheep').
  • The stops /p/, /b/ initially in a syllable with a back vowel and the coda /c/ labialized /pw/ and /bw/, respectively (/səˈboc/ [səˈbwʊjʔ] 'to utter').
Finals
IPA /-k/ [-k̚] /-ŋ/ /-t/ [-t̚] /-n/ /-p/ [-p̚] /-m/ /-j/ /-c/ [-jʔ] /-s/ [-jh] /-w/ /-h/ /-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*
  • /-j/ and /-w/ could be treated as a part of diphthongs or triphthongs.
  • /-l/ only exists in Phuket dialect.

Stress and Intonation

Urak Lawoi' does not have tones, except in Thai loans. Words are usually stressed in penultimate syllable, except if it the expected stress is placed in pre-syllable (e.g. open syllables containing /ə/, but not /ər/) the stress moves into the next syllable. Urak Lawoi' also has the intonation for the whole sentence. For example, the interrogative sentences have raising intonation, and the negative sentences have lower-pitch intonation.

References

  1. ^ Urak Lawoi’ at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Anderbeck, Karl (2012). Notes on Malayic Suku Laut Dialectology (abstract) (PDF). ISMIL 16 conference presentation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-02.
  3. ^ Hogan 1988, p. 21
  4. ^ Hogan 1988, p. 13
  5. ^ de Groot 2012, p. 19

Further reading

  • Saengmani, Amon (1979). Phonology of the Urak Lawoi' Language: Adang Island (PDF) (MA thesis). Mahidol University.
  • Hogan, David W. (1976). "Urak Lawoi' (Orang Laut)". In Smalley, William A. (ed.). Phonemes and Orthography: Language Planning in Ten Minority Languages of Thailand. Pacific Linguistics C – 43. Canberra: The Australian National University. pp. 283–302. doi:10.15144/PL-C43. hdl:1885/146593. ISBN 0-85883-144-9.
  • Hogan, David W. (1988). Urak Lawoi': Basic Structures and a Dictionary. Pacific Linguistics Series C No. 109. Canberra: The Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-C109. hdl:1885/146628. ISBN 0-85883-385-9.
  • de Groot, Jacob Y. (2012). Urak Lawoi’: Language and Social History. Phuket: Prince of Songkla University, Phuket Campus.
  • ศูนย์ศึกษาและฟื้นฟูภาษาและวัฒนธรรมในภาวะวิกฤต. (2020). คู่มือระบบเขียนภาษาอูรักลาโวยจอักษรไทย ฉบับมหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล. นครปฐม: สถาบันวิจัยภาษาและวัฒนธรรมเอเชีย มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล. ISBN 978-616-443-534-6