Phonological Sketch of Helong, an Austronesian Language of Timor

Abstract

Helong is an Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia with three dialects: Pulau, Bolok and Funai. Helong Pulau has 17 possible vowel sequences and a simple phoneme inventory of fourteen consonants and five vowels. The glottal stop /ʔ/ has a limited distribution, primarily occuring in word-final codas. Several morphophonemic changes, including metathesis, indicate that /ʔ/ is like other consonants. There is also a morphophonological process where the nominalizing prefix /h-/, a voiceless glottal fricative, causes a number of consonants to assimilate to the voiceless phonation of the preceding consonant, seen in muki ‘haveV’ → /hm/ [m̥] m̥uki ‘wealthN’, and spirantization as seen in kokon ‘sweepV’ → /hk/ [χ] χokon ‘broomN’. The /h-/ prefix has no assimilatory influence when it precedes voiced stops, as seen in ˈbutu ‘tieV’ → ˈhbutu ‘bundleN’, ˈdula ‘writeV’ → ˈhdulat ‘pictureN’.