Diftong Dialek Melayu Saribas.

This paper describes the formation of diphthongs in Saribas Malay dialect by providing a theoretical analysis based on Halle’s features geometry (1995) and Clements’s syllable structure (1985). Data for this study was obtained through a field research in Saratok district, Sarawak. Ten native speakers of Saribas Malay dialect contribute the data. The data was collected by wordlists, interviews, and audio recording. The data shows the dialect has the same diphthongs as in the Standard Malay that is [ay], [oy] and [aw]. Diphthongs [ay] and [oy] arises in the surface structure, while diphthong [aw] only arises in the underlying structure. The formation of diphthongs in Saribas Malay dialect produces in three ways; origin words, monophthongization and feature changing. Monophthongization only occurs in the Standard Malay loanwords /aw/ and /ay/ by diluting the diphthong’s segments to form [ɛ] and [ɔ]. Feature changing occurs when low vowels precede the liquid /l/ in the word-final position resulting diphthongs [ay] and [oy]. Liquid /l/ is not permitted in a coda of the final syllable structure in Saribas Malay dialect. In contrast, other Sarawak Malay subdialects such as Kuching and Rejang Malay dialects allow the presence of liquid /l/ in the coda. The findings of this study give added value to the previous studies which asserted that Saribas Malay dialect only consists of one diphthong [oy], as well as give recommendations for further study so that the linguistic development in Saribas Malay dialect can be studied extensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]