Madurese language

Madurese is a language of the Madurese people, native to the Madura Island and Eastern Java, Indonesia; it is also spoken by migrants to other parts of Indonesia, namely the eastern salient of Java (comprising Pasuruan, Surabaya, Malang to Banyuwangi), the Masalembu Islands and even some on Kalimantan. It was traditionally written in the Javanese script, but the Latin script and the Pegon script (based on Arabic script) is now more commonly used. The number of speakers, though shrinking, is estimated to be 10-13 million, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the country. Bawean Madurese, which is a dialect of Madurese, is also spoken by Baweanese descendants in Malaysia and Singapore.

Madurese
Bhâsa Madhurâ بۤاسا مادورۤا‎ ꦧꦱꦩꦝꦸꦫ
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Island of Madura, Sapudi Islands, Java, Singapore and Malaysia (as Boyanese)
Ethnicity	Madurese Baweanese Kangeanese
Native speakers	10-13.6 million (2008)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Malayo-Sumbawan (?) Madurese
Dialects	Bawean Bangkalan Pamekasan Sampang Sapudi Sumenep Kangean
Writing system	Latin script Carakan script Pegon alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mad
ISO 639-3	mad – Standard Madurese
Glottolog	madu1247
Areas where Madurese is spoken by a majority of the population   Areas where Madurese is spoken by a significant minority of the population

Madurese in Javanese script

Madurese is a Malayo-Sumbawan language of the Malayo-Polynesian language family, a branch of the larger Austronesian language family. Thus, despite apparent geographic spread, Madurese is more related to Balinese, Malay, Sasak and Sundanese, than it is to Javanese, the language used on the island of Java just across Madura Island.

Links between Bali–Sasak languages and Madurese are more evident with the vernacular form (common form).

Phonology

Latin letters are given according to the 2008 orthography.

Vowels

Madurese vowels

	Front	Central	Back
			unrounded	rounded
Close	/i/ ꦆ ⟨i⟩	/ɨ/ ꦆ ⟨e⟩		/u/ ꦈ ⟨u⟩
Mid	/ɛ/ ꦌ ⟨è⟩	/ə/ ꦄꦼ ⟨e⟩	/ɤ/ ꦄꦼꦴ ⟨â⟩	/ɔ/ ꦎ ⟨o⟩
Open		/a/ ꦄ ⟨a⟩

Vowels /a/, /ɛ/, /ə/, /ɔ/ and its higher counterparts /ɤ/, /i/, /ɨ/, /u/ are usually in complementary distribution. The last 4 vowels occur after voiced and aspirated consonants, while the first 4 vowels occur elsewhere. Consonants /l/, /r/, and /s/, although by default lower the vowels, are transparent after higher vowels, for example belli /bɨlli/ "to buy" instead of *bellè /bɨllɛ/.

Consonants

Madurese consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		/m/ ꦩ ⟨m⟩ ⟨م⟩	/n̪/ ꦤ ⟨n⟩ ⟨ن⟩	/ɳ/ ꦟ ⟨ṇ⟩ ⟨ن⟩	/ɲ/ ꦚ ⟨ny⟩ ⟨ۑ⟩	/ŋ/ ꦔ ⟨ng⟩ ⟨ڠ⟩
Plosive	voiceless	/p/ ꦥ ⟨p⟩ ⟨ڤ⟩	/t̪/ ꦠ ⟨t⟩ ⟨ت⟩	/ʈ/ ꦛ ⟨ṭ⟩ ⟨ڟ⟩	/c/ ꦕ ⟨c⟩ ⟨چ⟩	/k/ ꦏ ⟨k⟩ ⟨ك⟩	/ʔ/ ꦃ ⟨'⟩ ⟨ء⟩
	voiced	/b/ ꦧ ⟨b⟩ ⟨ب⟩	/d̪/ ꦢ ⟨d⟩ ⟨د⟩	/ɖ/ ꦣ ⟨ḍ⟩ ⟨ڊ⟩	/ɟ/ ꦗ ⟨j⟩ ⟨ج⟩	/ɡ/ ꦒ ⟨g⟩ ⟨ࢴ⟩
	aspirated	/pʰ/ ꦧ ⟨bh⟩ ⟨ب⟩	/t̪ʰ/ ꦢ ⟨dh⟩ ⟨د⟩	/ʈʰ/ ꦣ ⟨ḍh⟩ ⟨ڊ⟩	/cʰ/ ꦗ ⟨jh⟩ ⟨ج⟩	/kʰ/ ꦒ ⟨gh⟩ ⟨ࢴ⟩
Fricative			/s/ ꦱ ⟨s⟩ ⟨س⟩				/h/ ꦲ ⟨h⟩ ⟨ه⟩
Trill			/r/ ꦫ ⟨r⟩ ⟨ر⟩
Approximant			/l/ ꦭ ⟨l⟩ ⟨ل⟩		/j/ ꦪ ⟨y⟩ ⟨ي⟩	/w/ ꦮ ⟨w⟩ ⟨و⟩

Madurese has more consonants than its neighboring languages due to it having voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated (traditionally often transcribed as voiced aspirated), and voiced unaspirated. Similar to Javanese, it has a contrast between dental and alveolar (even retroflex) stops.

The letters ⟨f⟩, ⟨q⟩, ⟨v⟩, ⟨x⟩, and ⟨z⟩ are used in loanwords.

Morphology

Madurese nouns are not inflected for gender and are pluralized via reduplication. Its basic word order is subject–verb–object. Negation is expressed by putting a negative particle before the verb, adjective or noun phrase. As with other similar languages, there are different negative particles for different kinds of negation.

Common words

Madurese		Indonesian	English
Latin	Pèghu
lakè’	لاكَيء‎	laki-laki	male
binè’	بِينَيء‎	perempuan	female
iyâ	إيۤا‎	iya	yes
enja′	أٓنجاْء‎	tidak	no
aèng [aɛŋ]	أئَيڠ‎	air	water
arè	أرَي‎	matahari	sun
mata	ماتا‎	mata	eye
sengko'	سَيڠكَوء‎	aku/saya	I/me
bâ'na	بۤاءنا‎	kamu/engkau	you

Numerals

Madurese		Indonesian	English
Latin	Pèghu
sèttong	سَيتَّوڠ‎	satu	one
duwâ'	دووۤاء‎	dua	two
tello'	تٓلَّوء‎	tiga	three
empa'	اۤمڤاء‎	empat	four
lèma’	لَيماء‎	lima	five
ennem	اۤنّٓم‎	enam	six
pètto’	ڤَيتَّوء‎	tujuh	seven
bâllu’	بۤالّوء‎	delapan	eight
sanga′	ساڠاء‎	sembilan	nine
sapolo	ساڤَولَو‎	sepuluh	ten

Sample text

From Article 1 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Latin

Sâdhâjâna orèng lahèr mardhika èsarengè dhrâjhât klabân ha'-ha' sè padâ. Sâdhâjâna èparèngè akal sareng nurani bân kodhu areng-sareng akanca kadhi tarètan.

Aksara Pèghu

ساڊۤاجۤانا عَورَيڠ لاهَير مارڊيكا عَيسارۤڠَي ڊ‎رۤاجۤات کلابۤان هاء۲ سَي پادۤا. ساڊۤاجۤانا عَيڤارَيڠَي أکال سارۤڠ نوراني كَوڊو أرۤڠ-سارۤڠ أكانچا كاڊي تارَيتان.‎

Translation

"All Human Beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, they are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Bibliography

• Davies, W. D. (2010). A Grammar of Madurese. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
• Kiliaan, H. N. (1897). Madoereesche Spraakkunst (in Dutch). Batavia: Landsdrukkerij.