General references on Belait phonology include Martin (1990) on Metting Belait[1] and Noor Alifah Abdullah (1992) on Labi Belait.[2] This sketch is based on the Metting dialect. Other dialects may vary in their phonology and lexicon.
Consonants[]
| Labial | Apical | Laminal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral Stops | p | b | t | d | c | ɟ | k | g | q | ɢ | ʔ | |
| Nasal Stops | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||||
| Fricatives | f | v | s | z | x | ɣ | ʁ | h | ||||
| Laterals | l | ʎ | ʟ | |||||||||
| Glides | w | ɹ | j | ɰ | ||||||||
| Trills | ʙ | ʀ | ||||||||||
Vowels[]
Metting Belait has five monophthong vowels /i, u, e, o, a/. There is one diphthong /iə/.
The phoneme /e/ is realised as [ə] in non-final syllables, and as [ɛ] and [e] in final syllables.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | y | ɨ | ɯ | u | |
| Close-mid | e | ø | ɘ | ɵ | o | |
| Mid | ɛ | œ | ə | ʌ | ɔ | |
| Open-mid | æ | ɐ | ||||
| Open | a | ɑ | ɒ | |||
Syllable Structure[]
Lexical roots are disyllabic. Final syllables are typically (C)V((C)C). Non-final are typically ((C)C)V(C).