Żaneta Krulikowska/ Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 7 No. 2  (2020)

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This research is a cross-sectional sample survey with a qualitative 
approach of Malay Jambi’s phonology in Sarolangun Regency. The data 
was collected in the field using observation and interview methods. It has 
a form of notes, interview transcriptions, and audio and video recordings. 
The data was analyzed using a phonetic articulator matching method 
with a diving-key-factors technique as a basis. The results are presented 
based on the phonetic symbols of the IPA Chart (revised 2005). As found 
in the research, Malay Jambi of Sarolangun has six vowels and twenty 
consonants, one of which does not occur in native Malay Jambi words. 
Beyond the phonological system description, this paper discusses various 
features found in Sarolangun like nasalization and laxing of vowels, 
consonant and syllable deletion, or glide insertion. 

keyword

Malay Jambi, Phoneme, Phonology,  Sarolangun

correSpondence

E-mail: zkrulikowska@gmail.com

  

Article

Phonological Sketch of Malay Jambi Language of 
Sarolangun, Indonesia
Żaneta Krulikowska1, Nadra2, Muhammad Yusdi3

1,2,3Lingustics Department, Faculty of Humanities, Andalas University, Padang

Under Liscense of Creative Commons Attributioni-NonCommercial 4.0 International.DOI: https://doi.org/10.25077/ar.7.2.173-181.2020 

I. INTRODUCTION 

Over the centuries, Malay was the most influential 
language in the Southeast Asian region. Its role was 
even compared to Latin in ancient and medieval 
Europe (Collins 2005: 32). According to Blust’s 
(1984 in Adelaar 2004: 4) and later also Adelaar’s 
(1985 in Adelaar 2004: 4) theory, Malay language 
spread beyond its homeland in Southwest Borneo 
around 2000–2500 years ago. Since that time, its 
spread resulted in dozens of variations in countries 
such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, 
the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Southern Thailand 
(Adelaar and Himmelmann (eds.) 2005: 202). 

A large number of Malay variations can be found 
in Indonesia, the country known for its multi-
ethnicity. Even though Indonesia has a national 
language, Indonesian, this country is inhabited by 
hundreds of ethnic groups that use their languages. 
Dialects and sub-dialects of Malay language are 
spoken by approximately 17 million people in 
Indonesia from Aceh to Irian Jaya province (Lewis 
2009).

Although there are many Malay dialects in 
Indonesia, this paper focuses on Malay Jambi 
[ISO: jax] variety spoken in Sarolangun Regency. 
Malay Jambi belongs to Austronesian languages, 
more precisely Malayic sub-branch of Western 
Malayo-Polynesian branch (Paauw 2008: 3). 
The total number of its speakers is estimated at 
around 1,000,000 (Lewis 2009). Studies of Malay 
Jambi language among others include Husin et al. 
(1985), Harahap (2015), Kamarudin and Rustam 
(2016), and Oktariza and Sufiyandi (2017), but 
the only one took place in Sarolangun Regency 
i.e. dialectological research of Malay language in 
the Batanghari River valley by Anderbeck (2008). 
Anderbeck analyzed the Jambi people’s speech 
in 16 locations, three of which were located in 
Sarolangun Regency, namely Dusun Dalam, Aro 
Island, and Lubuk Kepayang. He classified Dusun 
Dalam and Lubuk Kepayang isolect as Jambi 
Ulu dialect of Malay language, while Pulau Aro 
isolect, which is closely related to Minangkabau 
language, was classified as Penghulu dialect of 
Malay language (Anderbeck, 2008: 30).  However, 
he only briefly discussed Malay Jambi language’s 173



Żaneta Krulikowska/ Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 7 No. 2  (2020)

phonological aspect relying on other books, such 
as Husin et al. (1985 in Anderbeck, 2008: 27) and 
Gani et al. (2000 in Anderbeck, 2008: 27) without 
any verification. Therefore, none of the studies of 
Malay Jambi language described phonology of that 
language in Sarolangun Regency.

Sarolangun Regency itself, with a total area of 
6,184 km2, is the third biggest regency in Jambi 
Province. The population of Sarolangun reached 
315,469 people in 2017. The main religion of that 
region is Islam, which is the main religion of the 
Malay ethnic group (Prayogi, 2016: 14, Sunandar, 
2015: 60-61). The everyday language between the 
inhabitants is Malay Jambi of Sarolangun which is 
commonly called bahasa Sarolangun (Sarolangun 
language), meanwhile the official language used 
in schools and offices is Indonesian. Bahasa 
Sarolangun has been influenced by the other 
languages used in this regency i.e. Minangkabau, 
Javanese, Kubu, Batin, and Penghulu (Anderbeck 
2008: 30). One of the characteristics of Malay Jambi 
spoken in this region is that originally speakers use 
uvular fricative [ʁ] instead of trill [r] like it happens 
in Malay Jambi spoken around Jambi city (Husin 
et al. 1985: 12–13) while trill [r] only appears in 
loan vocabulary. These differences indicate that 
bahasa Sarolangun is a recognizable mark of its 
community that appears in the local language.

This paper provides a synchronic description 
of the phonological system of the Malay Jambi 
variety spoken in Sarolangun Regency. Due to 
the fact that Malayic languages do not distinguish 
phonemic suprasegmental segments (Adelaar 
and Himmelmann (eds.) 2005: 202), the research 
is limited to the description of segmental sounds 
only analyzed phonetically, more precisely using 
articulatory phonetics and phonemics. 

The purpose of this paper is 1) description and 
classification of phonemes contained in Malay 
Jambi of Sarolangun, 2) description of the 
distribution of these phonemes, and 3) description 
of Malay Jambi syllable pattern in Sarolangun.

II. METHODS

This research is a cross-sectional sample survey 
with a qualitative approach. The research covers 
the whole area of Sarolangun Regency located in 
the western region of Jambi Province. Taking into 

account that Sarolangun District is the economic 
and cultural center of the entire regency, it can be 
considered as a model of the phonological system 
of other districts and can be taken as the primary 
location for this research

The data was collected using observation and 
interview methods from three speakers who were 
selected based on the requirements taken from 
Nadra and Reniwati (2009: 36–42). It took a form 
of notes, interview transcriptions, and audio and 
video recordings.  In a case of any doubts, data was 
consulted with an additional speaker and was also 
supplemented with daily dialogues of Sarolangun 
residents. The author used a vocabulary list by 
Nadra and Reniwati (2009: 103) which was revised 
and reduced according to the needs of this study i.e. 
from 864 words and sentences to 550 words. 

Then the data were analyzed using two methods 
by Sudaryanto (2015: 25–35). The first one is a 
phonetic identity method used to identify speech 
sounds in Malay Jambi of Sarolangun and then 
distinguish phonemes among recognized sounds. 
Analytical procedures completed this method 
by Pike (1966: 57–122). The second one is a 
distributional method that was used to analyze the 
syllables of the researched language.

III. RESULT

This section describes phonemes found in Malay 
Jambi in Sarolangun Regency and their distribution 
in words and syllables. It also includes discussion 
about patterns of syllables, clusters and diphthongs, 
and free variations.

3.1 Description and Distribution of Consonants 
and Vowels

The description of phonemes in Malay Jambi in 
Sarolangun Regency divides phonemes into two 
types, namely consonants and vowels. It explains 
a manner of articulation, the airstream mechanism, 
and state of the glottis of found consonants as 
well as the size and shape of the space within the 
mouth while producing each vowel – the shape and 
position of tongue and jaw and the shape of lips. 
It also describes the loan consonant /r/ which was 
found in the research. The results are summarized 
in tables.174



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The distribution shows the position of a word and 
a syllable each consonant and vowel can occur. 
Positions of the word were divided into three 
groups, i.e. initial, middle, and final position, while 
positions of the syllable consist of onset, syllabic 
nucleus, and coda.

3.1.1 Description and Distribution of Consonants

As found in the research, there are 25 native 
phonemes in Sarolangun, nineteen of which are 
consonants, and six are vowels. In addition to the 
native consonants, one loan consonant was found 
in studies.

Based on the analysis that has been done, it can be 
concluded that Malay Jambi of Sarolangun consists 
of four nasals, seven plosives, two sibilant affricates, 
three sibilant fricatives, two approximants, one 
lateral approximant, and one trill which is the loan 
consonant. The consonants can be also divided into 
thirteen voiced consonants and seven voiceless 
consonants. Table 1. is a consonant chart based on 
the classification of Handbook of the International 
Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the 
International Phonetic Alphabet (The International 
Phonetic Association, 2007). Loan consonant is 
written in brackets.

Some several phonological dependencies and 
tendencies have been found in consonants of 
Sarolangun language. This article provides a short 
explanation of each of these phenomena.

Phonemes /p/, /t/, and /h/ are unreleased and 

become [p̚], [t̚], [h̚] in syllable-final position, while 
phoneme /k/ becomes plosive glottal [Ɂ] in that 
position, examples are /a.sap/ [a.sap̚] ‘smoke’, 
/ə.pat/ [ə.pat̚] ‘four’, /i.luk/ [i.lʊɁ] ‘beautiful’, and /
su.buh/ [su.bʊh̚] ‘dawn’.

The phoneme /k/ and /ɡ/ are released as palatal [c] 
and [ɟ] and phoneme /h/ as velar [x] if they occur 
before phoneme /i/, e.g. /bu.kit/ [bu.cɪt̚] ‘hill’, /
pa.gi/ [pa.ɟi] ‘morning’, and /li.hi.ja/ [li.xi.ɪ̯a] 
‘neck’.

Finally, the sibilant fricative uvular /ʁ/ occurs as 
a trill [r] at a final position of a word, as in /i.paʁ/ 
[i.par] ‘sister/brother-in-law’.

All consonant phonemes can be in the initial and 
middle position of a word, except /Ɂ/ which does 
not occur in the initial position of a word. However, 
among discovered phonemes, few of them do not 
occur in the final position of the word, namely 
phonemes /ɲ/, /b/, /d/, /ɡ/, /Ɂ/, /ʨ/, and /ʥ/. What 
is more, there are no consonants in Sarolangun that 
can play a role of syllabic nucleus. Consonants 
which appear only in onset of syllables are /ʥ/, /ʨ/, 
/Ɂ/, /ɡ/, /d/, /b/, and /ɲ/, other consonants occur both 
in onset and coda of syllables. 

Speakers of Sarolangun tend to insert the 
approximant /j/ or /w/ to separate close vowels 
from other vowels in a two-vowel sequence. The 
close front unrounded vowel /i/ is separated with 
the voiced palatal approximant /j/ and the close 
back rounded vowel /u/ is separated with the voiced 

Table 1. Consonant Chart of Malay Jambi of Sarolangun

175



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labio-velar approximant /w/, as in /ti.jaŋ/ ‘tiang’ 
or /pa.ku.wa/ ‘hoe’. This phenomenon is usually 
called approximant or glide insertion. Sometimes, 
an approximant insertion occurs as a result of a 
consonant loss, like in /pa.hit/ > /pa .jit/ ‘bitter’ 
where after the loss of the phoneme /h/ appeared the 
approximant /j/ to break the two-vowel sequence.

The longest sequence of consonants in Sarolangun 
is the two-consonant sequence. Speakers of Malay 
Jambi in Sarolangun often remove one of the 
consonants that cause total disappearance of that 
sequence. In a sequence which consists of nasal and 
voiced plosive phonemes, the removed phoneme 
is a voiced plosive, as in /səm.bi.lan/ > /sə.mi.lan/ 
‘nine’, while in the sequence of nasal and unvoiced 
plosive phonemes, the nasal is reduced, e.g. /san.
tan/ > /sa.tan/ ‘coconut milk’. In the sequence of 
nasal /n/ and affricate /ʥ/, the reduced sound could 
become both phoneme /n/ and phoneme /ʥ/, as in 
/kə.ʁan.ʥaŋ/ > /kə.ʁa.ʥaŋ/ ‘basket’ or /an.ʥiŋ/ > 
/a.niŋ/ ‘dog’.

Loan consonant /r/ consists of two allophones, i.e. 
voiced trill alveolar [r] and voiceless alveolar tap/
flap [ɾ]. Sound [ɾ] only occurs in the intervocal 
position, while [r] in all positions other than that. 
This phoneme occurs at the initial, middle, and final 
position of a word, both in onset and code position 
of syllable in a vocabulary that is considered 
unusual/from outside by Sarolangun residents and 
as an influence from other languages.

3.1.2 Description and Distribution of Vowels

Like most of Malay dialects and sub-dialects, the 
phoneme inventory of Malay Jambi in Sarolangun 
consists of 6 vowels, as presented in Table 2.  Two 
of them are close vowels, two close-mid vowels, 
a middle vowel, and an open vowel. Moreover, 
there is three front not rounded vowels, one central 
rounded vowel, and two back rounded vowels.

Regarding distribution in words, it can be concluded 
that vowels /i/, /u/, /o/, and /a/ can occur in all 
positions of a word, except the vowel /e/ that has 
never been found in the initial position and vowel 
/ə/ that has never occurred in the final position of 
a word. Furthermore, all of the vowels in Malay 
Jambi of Sarolangun always play the role of a 
syllabic nucleus in a syllable. 

Table 2. Vowel Chart of Malay Jambi of Sarolangun
front

central
back

not rounded rounded
close i u

close-mid e o
mid ə
open a

Generally, all of the vowels which occur after nasal 
consonants tend to become nasal, e.g. /də.ŋan/ [də.
ŋãn] ‘with’ or /ʁi.mo/ [ʁi.mõ] ‘forest’.

Moreover, vowels /u/, /e/, /i/, /o/ become lax, i.e. 
[ʊ], [ɛ], [ɪ], [ɔ], in final closed syllables, as in /
pə.nek/ [pə.nɛ̃Ɂ] ‘short’. This tendency was also 
discovered in descriptions of other phonologies of 
Malay dialects, i.e. Clynes and Deterding (2011: 
211), or Soderberg and Olson (2011: 211).

At last, the mid-central vowel /ə/, known as schwa, 
might be deleted in the first syllable, which causes 
the appearance of clusters, for example,/kə.ʁi.tiŋ/ > 
/kØʁi.tiŋ/ ‘curly’. This tendency might also cause 
a reduction of syllables in words, as in /kə.ʁan.
ʥaŋ/ > /kØʁan.ʥaŋ/ ‘basket’ where three syllables 
become two. This tendency will be also explained 
in section §2.3 about clusters in Sarolangun.

3.2 Description of Syllables

In this section, the writer discusses the syllables in 
Malay Jambi of Sarolangun. Descriptions of found 
syllable patterns are divided into two, i.e. patterns 
in native and in loan vocabulary. In addition, the 
author also analyzes the distribution of syllables 
in words consisting of one, two, three, and four 
syllables because the longest words found in that 
language consist of four syllables.

Based on the collected data, the syllable patterns 
in Sarolangun consist of six patterns that occur in 
the native vocabulary, namely N like [u] in [u.ʁaŋ], 
NC like [əm] in the word [əm.pə.du], ON as [ci] 
in [ci.daʊ̯], ONC like [lʊt̚] in the word [mũ.lʊt̚], 
OON as [ɡra] in [ɡra.ham], OONC like [kʁan] in 
[kʁan.ʥaŋ], as well as four patterns found in the 
loan vocabulary, namely N as [u] in [u.sʊs], ON 
like [to] in [to.pi], ONC as [man] in the word [man.
dɔr] , OON as [sɪ̯o] in [mã.nũ.sɪ̯o]. The canonical 
syllable structure is (O1)(O2)(N)(C1), with N 
as the simplest, e.g. /u/ in /u.sus/ ‘intestine’ and 
OONC as the most complex structure, e.g. /kʁik/ in 176



Żaneta Krulikowska/ Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 7 No. 2  (2020)

/ʥaŋ.kʁik/ ‘cicada’. In Malay Jambi of Sarolangun, 
the syllable nucleus is always a vowel phoneme. 
In contrast, in onset and coda positions, there are 
always consonant phonemes, so it can be assumed 
that the nucleus (N) is equal to the vowel (V), 
while the onset (O) and coda (C) is the same as a 
consonant (K). All possible syllable variations can 
be seen in table 3.

Table 3. Description of Syllables
native vocabulary loan vocabulary

monosyllabic 
words

ON
 ONC
 OON
OONC

ONC

two-syllable 
words

N.ON
N.ONC

 NC.ONC
ON.N

ON.ON
ON.ONC

ON.OONC
ONC.ON

ONC.ONC
NC.OONC
OON.ONC

N.ONC
ON.ON 

ON.ONC ONC.
ON ONC.ONC

three-syllable 
words

N.ON.ON
N.ON.ONC
NC.ON.ON
ON.N.ONC
ON.ON.ON

ON.ONC.ON
ON.ON.ONC

ON.ONC.ONC
ONC.N.ON

ONC.ON.ON
ONC.ON.ONC

N.ON.ON
ON.ON.ON

ON.ON.ONC
ON.ON.OON
ONC.ON.ON

OON.ON.ONC

four-syllable 
words

ON.ON.ON.ONC
ON.ONC.ON.ON

ONC.ON.ON.ONC
ON.ON.ON.ON

Syllable patterns in Sarolangun change when 
considered from a phonemic or phonetic perspective, 
especially in derivative words. The derivative word 
is a word that is produced in the process of adding 
affixes, such as affixation, reduplication, or merging 
(Kridalaksana, 2008: 111). Phonemic syllable 
patterns in derivative words can be different when 
compared with the phonetic syllable patterns, for 
example, the phonetic pattern for the word ‘diikuti’ 
is ON.ON.ON.ON - /di.Ɂi.ku.ti/, while phonemic 
one is ON.ON.ONC.N - /di.Ɂi.kut.i/. In the article, 
the phonetic pattern is used.

In Sarolangun, the consonants /h/ or /ʁ/ which 
occur in the word’s initial or final position tend to 
be omitted. Moreover, the consonant /h/ can also 
be omitted in onset of a second syllable, which 
might cause a reduction of syllables, an insertion 
of approximant, or an insertion of a glottal stop. 
The examples can be seen in Table 4 below.

Table 4. Deletion of /h/ and /ʁ/
example

initial position 
of a word

/hi.duŋ/ > /Øi.duŋ/ ‘nose’, /ham.baʁ/ > 
/Øam.ba/ ‘tasteless’ 

/ʁu.mah/ > /Øu.mah/ ‘house’

an onset of 
second syllable

/ba.hu/ > /ba.wu/ ‘to smell’, /da.han/ > 
/da.Ɂan ~ dan/ ‘branch’, 

/ta.hu/ > /ta.wu/ ‘to know’

final position of 
a word

/lebaʁ/ > /li.baØ/ ‘wide’, /la.paʁ/ > /
la.paØ/ ‘hungry’,  

/bə.naʁ/ > /bə.naØ/ ‘correct’
/ba.sah/ > /ba.saØ/ ‘wet’, /sə.pu.luh/ > /

sə.pu.luØ/ ‘ten’,  
/tu.ʥuh/ > /tu.ʥuØ/ ‘seven’

Another tendency found in Sarolangun is the 
deletion of the whole syllable. This tendency might 
concern only the first and second syllables of a 
word. The first lost syllables are /ma/, /kə/, /pə/, 
and /mə/, while the second lost syllables might be /
hi/, /mu/, /ʁe/. All of the found examples are shown 
in Table 5.

Table 5. Deletion of a Syllable
example

first 
syllable

/ma.ʨam/ > /Ø.ʨam/ ‘kind/type’, /kə.pa.la/ > 
/Ø.pa.la/ ‘head’,  

/pə.li.pis/ > /Ø.li.pis/ ‘temple (part of the 
body)’, /məŋ.ɡa.tuŋ/ > /Ø.ŋɡa.tuŋ/ ‘to hang’

second 
syllable

/li.hi.ja/ > /li.Ø.ja/ ‘neck’, /ni.mu.wa/ > /
ni.Ø.wa/ ‘coconut’, /ka.ʁe.no/ > /ka.Ø.no/ 

‘because’

3.3 Clusters and Diphthongs

Three diphthongs were found in research in Malay 
Jambi of Sarolangun language, i.e. diphthongs /aw/ 
and /aj/, which occur frequently and diphthong /
oj/, which only appears in the loan word /a.soj/ 
borrowed from Betawi language. Therefore, only 
two diphthongs are native diphthongs, namely /aw/ 
and /aj/. All found diphthongs are falling diphthongs 
because the first vocal majority is higher than the 
second vocal majority.177



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In general, clusters do not appear in Sarolangun 
language. However, the author found several 
examples of clusters resulting from the weakening 
of the phonemes or syllables. The found clusters 
are /ɡr/ for example, in /ɡra.ham/ ‘molars’, /kʁ/ 
in /kʁan.ʥaŋ/ ‘basket’, /pʁ/ in /pʁa.buŋ/ ‘join’, 
/ng/ in word /ŋɡa.tuŋ/ ‘hang’, and /mw/ in /
ni.mwa/ ‘coconut’. These clusters are in the first 
syllable of words, except /ni.mwa/ which is in the 
second syllable. Phonemes and syllable in which 
weakening occurred are /ə/, /u/, and /mə/. Examples 
of these types of weakening can be seen in Table 6.

Table 6. Clusters

examples

/ə/ > /Ø/ /ɡra.ham ~ gə.ra.ham/, /kʁi.tiŋ ~ kə.ʁi.tiŋ/, 
/pʁa.buŋ ~ pə.ʁa.buŋ/, dll.

/u/ > /Ø/ /ni.mwa ~ ni.mu.wa/

/mə/ > /Ø/ /ŋɡa.tuŋ ~ məŋ.ɡa.tuŋ/

3.4 Free Variations

Besides the few phonological tendencies, which 
were found in Malay Jambi in Sarolangun, free 
variations can also be observed in this language. 
Free variation occurs in the same environment, for 
example, in words whose meanings are the same, 
but pronunciation is different (Kridalaksana, 2008: 
254). It might apply both to consonants and vowels. 
All of the found examples are presented in Table 7 
below.

Table 7. Free Variation
Variation Example

/a/ and /ə/

/ma.nan.tu/ and /mə.nan.tu/ ‘daughter/son-
in-law’, /ka.ʁak/ and /kə.ʁak/ ‘eggshell’, /
ma.tah/ and /mə.tah/ ‘raw’, /la.mak/ and /

lə.mak/ ‘tasty’

/o/ and /u/ /tu.pul/ and /to.pol/ ‘blunt’, /ɲja.kol/ and /
nja.kul/ ‘to hoe’

/i/ and /e/ /sə.min/ and /sə.men/ ‘cement’, /sə.nin/ 
and /sə.nen/ ‘Monday’

/in/, /it/, and 
/et/

/ʨə.ʁe.win/, /ʨə.ʁe.wit/, and /ʨə.ʁe.wet/ 
‘miser’

/d/ and /b/ /ʨe.dok/ and /ʨe.bok/ ‘scoop’

/r/ and /h/ /kə.le.la.war/ and /kə.le.la.wah/ ‘bat’

/k/ and /ɡ/ /ku.tu/ and /ɡu.tu/ ‘flea’, /kə.lak/ and /
ɡə.lak/ ‘later’

IV. DISCUSSION

Based on the results of the analysis, it can be 
concluded that the phonological system of 
Malay Jambi in Sarolangun Regency consists of 
twenty consonants and six vowels. Those twenty 
consonants are as follows – nineteen native ones: 
/m/, /n/, /ɲ/, /ŋ/, /p/ consisting of allophones [p 
~ p̚], /b/, /t/ with allophones [t ~ t̚], /d/, /k/ with 
allophones [k ~ c ~ Ɂ], /ɡ/ with allophones [ɟ ~ ɡ], 
/Ɂ/, /ʨ/, /ʥ/, /s/, /ʁ/ with allophones [ʁ ~ r], /h/ with 
allophones [h ~ x ~ h̚], /w/, /j/, and /l/, and one loan 
consonant, /r/ with allophones [r~ ɾ]. Meanwhile 
six vowels are /i/ with allophones [i ~ i ̃ ~ ɪ ~ ɪ]̃, /u/ 
with allophones [u ~ ũ ~ ʊ ~ ʊ̃], /e/ with allophones 
[e ~ ẽ ~ ɛ ~ ɛ]̃, /o/ with allophones [o ~ õ ~ ɔ ~ ɔ̃], 
/ə/ with allophones [ə ~ ə̃], and /a/ with phonemes 
[a ~ ã]. 

The analysis of the Jambi Malay’s phonological 
system in Sarolangun shows that there are both 
similarities and differences between Sarolangun 
and other Jambi Malay isolects that have been 
studied previously well as with Standard Malay. 
It can be concluded that although the number of 
consonants is the same as their number in Husin et 
al. (1985), several phonemes are different. Husin et 
al. (1985) do not differentiate loan phonemes and 
they describe the archives /P/ and /T/ as phonemes 
that appear in the final position only, whereas in this 
study, the closed sounds [p̚] and [t̚] are considered 
as allophones of consonants /p/ and /t/.

Comparing consonants in Sarolangun to Standard 
Malay consonants, differences can also be found. 
Usually, Malay consonants consist of 19 original 
phonemes, except Adelaar (1992) and Clynes and 
Deterding (2011), which do not distinguish the 
glottal stop /Ɂ/ as a separate phoneme. In contrast 
to other authors, in this study no palato-alveolar 
affricates /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ (Clynes and Deterding, 2011 
and Sari and Syapturi, 2019) or palatal plosives 
/c/ and /ɟ/ are found, but what is observed are 
alveo-palatal sibilant affricates /ʨ/ and /ʥ/. The 
loan phonemes found in Standard Malay are also 
different from the loan phonemes in Sarolangun 
which have only one loan phoneme, namely /r/. In 
Standard Malay, Hassan (1972) found consonants 
/f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʑ/, /x/, /ɣ/, Omar (1993) - 
/f/, /v/, /ş/, /z/, /x/, /ʁ/, while Clynes and Deterding 
(2011) - /f/, /v/, /z/, /ʃ/, /x/, /Ɂ/.178



Żaneta Krulikowska/ Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 7 No. 2  (2020)

In addition, in Sarolangun, the phoneme /ʁ/ is the 
native sound in Sarolangun, while the phoneme 
/r/ occurs only in the loan vocabulary. This is a 
difference with the consonant phonemes by Husin 
et al. (1985: 12) and Adelaar (1992) because in 
their analysis, the sound [ʁ] was not found at all 
either as a separate phoneme or as an allophone 
from a phoneme /r/. In contrast to other writers, the 
author also found that phonemes /p/, /t/, and /h/ and 
phoneme /k/ is pronounced as /Ɂ/ are pronounced 
in the closed syllable position of the last syllable, 
this phenomenon was only described by Clynes 
and Deterding (2011). The author also found that 
the phoneme /h/ can be pronounced as [x], /k/ as 
[c], and /ɡ/ as [ɟ] when occur before phoneme /i/. 
This phenomenon was not discussed in previous 
studies.

The vowels found in Sarolangun are the same as 
those described by Husin et al. (1985) in Malay 
Jambi. Studies of Standard Malay, such as Hassan 
(1972), Omar (1993), and Adelaar (1992) as 
well as studies of various dialects of Malay, for 
example, Soderberg (2014a), also found the same 
six vowels. However, the discovered allophones 
were different from allophones in previous studies. 
Usually, previous studies did not discuss aspect 
of allophones in vowels (Hassan, 1972, Omar, 
1993, and Adelaar, 1992), except for Clynes and 
Deterding (2011), which showed low sounds and 
free variations as allophones of vowels in Standard 
Malay. Meanwhile, in the Jambi Malay language, 
Harahap (2015: 3-5) found the same allophones as 
in Sarolangun, i.e. [ʊ], [ɛ], [ɪ], [ɔ], however with a 
different pattern of occurrence, while Husin, et al. 
(1985: 28) only mentioned that the vowel /i/ and /u/
could irregularly be pronounced longer.

Syllable patterns in Sarolangun can have six forms, 
i.e. N, NC, ON, ONC, OON, OONC. The syllable 
nucleus is always a vowel, whereas in the onset 
and coda position is always the consonant. All 
consonants can occur at the onset of a syllable. 
The phonemes that are not in the coda are /b, d, 
g, ʨ, ʥ, Ɂ/. The longest found word consists 
of four syllables. Although the discussion of 
syllable patterns in other articles of Malay Jambi’s 
phonology was not observed, analysis of the syllable 
pattern of Melawi dialect of Malay language can be 
found (Noviani et al., 2020: 6-7). Comparison of 
Sarolangun’s syllables with Melawi’s shows that 

Melawi dialect has only one monosyllabic pattern 
which is KVK whereas Sarolangun has four – KV, 
KVK, KKV and KKVK. What is more, in two- and 
three-syllabic words of Sarolangun language, more 
patterns can be found than in Melawi dialect, and 
only three Melawi patterns were not discovered in 
Malay Jambi of Sarolangun, i.e. KV.KV, KV.KVV, 
KV.KVKV. Patterns that were not found in Melawi 
but were found in Sarolangun are VK.KVK, KV.V, 
KV.KKVK, VK.KKVK, KKV.KVK for two-
syllabic words and V.KV.KV, V.KV.KVK, VK.KV.
KV, KV.V.KVK, KV.KVK.KV and KVK.V.KV for 
three-syllabic words. Four-syllabic words were not 
found in Melawi dialect. 

Jambi Malay language in Sarolangun has three 
diphthongs, namely /aj/, /aw/, and /oj/ in which it is 
similar to Malay Jambi (Husin, et al., 1985: 32) and 
Standard Malay language (Clynes and Deterding, 
2011). However, diphthong /oj/, which in other 
studies was an original diphthong, in this study was 
found as a loan diphthong because it only occurred 
in one word from the Betawi language. The 
presence of clusters is a result of the weakening 
of the phonemes or syllables. Discovered clusters 
are /gr/, /kʁ/, /pʁ/, /ng/, and /mw/. The study of 
clusters was not found in previous studies of Malay 
language.

In addition to the phonological system of Malay 
Jambi in Sarolangun, the author also discusses 
several phonological tendencies that were found. 
For vowels, described tendencies are vowel 
nasalization after nasal consonant, vowels /u/, 
/e/, /i/, /o/ become lax in final closed syllables, an 
insertion of approximant /j/ or /w/ to separate close 
vowels from other vowels in a two-vowel sequence, 
and a weakening of /ə/. Meanwhile, for consonants, 
the observed phenomena include a weakening of 
/r/ and /h/ at the onset of a first syllable and at the 
end of a word, weakening of /h/ at the onset of a 
second syllable, and weakening of consonant in a 
two-consonant sequence. Weakening of /r/ and /h/ 
in initial and medial position as well as deletion 
of syllable, especially /kə/, /ma/, and /pə/, in 
initial position was also found in Malay language 
variation in Pulau Rengas region in Bangko Barat 
subdistrict in Jambi province (Aditiawarman and 
Hilda, 2018: 38-43). Deletion of /h/ and /r/ in final 
position of a word was also found in Riau Malay 
subdialect Kepulauan in Batam (Ambalegin and 179



Żaneta Krulikowska/ Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 7 No. 2  (2020)

Arianto, 2020: 170-171). In syllables a tendency 
was noticed, namely a compression of the whole 
syllable. This tendency might concern only the 
first or second syllable of a word. Finally, the free 
variations found are /a/ and /ə/, /o/ and /u/, /i/ and 
/e/, /in/, /it/, and /et/, /d/ and /b/, /r/ and /h/, and /k/ 
and /ɡ/. 

V. CONCLUSION

This study is a synchronic sketch of a phonological 
system of Malay Jambi as spoken in Sarolangun 
Regency in Indonesia. It is the first phonological 
research in that region of Jambi province and 

probably the first analysis of syllables, diphthongs 
and clusters, and phonological tendencies that 
occur in Malay Jambi language. 

Although, this discussion can provide a fairly 
detailed picture of the phoneme system, syllable 
patterns, and phenomena found in Sarolangun, 
there are still many linguistic aspects that need to 
be investigated in Malay Jambi language as well 
as that language as spoken in Sarolangun Regency. 
This paper aims to become a basis for further 
studies in morphology, syntax, and dialectology of 
Malay Jambi both in Sarolangun and generally.

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BIOGRAPHY

Żaneta Krulikowska was born on July 13, 1994 in Lowicz, Poland. In 2016, she graduated from the 
undergraduate program in Indonesian and Malay Philology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, 
Poland. In 2017, she received Unggulan Scholarship from Ministry of Education and Culture of 
Indonesia which provided her with the opportunity to take postgraduate course in Linguistics at Andalas 
University in Padang, Indonesia. In 2019, she defended her MA thesis on Phonology of the Malay Jambi 
of Sarolangun.

Nadra has been a permanent lecturer at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at Andalas University since 2002, 
who obtained a Bachelor of Literature (Dra.) in 1986 from the Faculty of Literature at Andalas University, 
a Masters in Linguistics (M.S.) in 1992 and a Doctor (Dr.) also in Linguistics in 1997 at Gadjah Mada 
University. She attended the “Short-Term Research Fellowship” program at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-
Universität in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1993 with a scholarship from DAAD. Academic awards 
obtained include the Unand Award for research and its application.

Muhammad Yusdi has been a permanent lecturer at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at Andalas University 
since 1982, who obtained a Bachelor degree (Drs.) at the same year from the Faculty of Literature at 
North Sumatra University, a Master in Linguistics (M.Hum.) in 1997 at Gadjah Mada University and 
a Doctor (Dr.) in Linguistics in 2008 at Udayana University in Denpasar, Bali. He attended the “Short-
Term Research Fellowship” program at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main, 
Germany in 1986. 181