Some Irregular Reflexes of Proto-malayo-polynesian Vowels in the Rejang Language of Sumatra*

At issue is the role of dialect evidence to explain certain irregular reflexes of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian vowels in Rejang. According to Blust (1984), the Musi dialect of Rejang seems to exemplify two types of sound change, one conditioned solely by phonological factors and the other by nonphonological (semantic or grammatical) factors; thus PMP *a irregularly failed to diphthongize in kin terms, and word-final *a, *i and *u irregularly failed to diphthongize in the pronouns. On the contrary, the paper suggests `Neogrammarian' regularity for all reflexes of PMP vowels in kin terms and pronouns in Rejang. In order to account for the apparent irregularities, it has been necessary to broaden the data base by revisiting the PMP consonantal reconstructions and the role of the accent, and above all by incorporating evidence from other dialects of the Rejang group (Kebanagung, Pesisir). The possibility of eventual union between historical phonology and dialect geography is discussed. Two errors of method in the previous literature on Rejang are pointed out.** 0. Introduction. In a pioneering study of Rejang historical phonology, Blust (1984) derived a large set of contemporary Rejang wordbases from reconstructed Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) etyma via a set of postulated regular sound changes, while at the same time demonstrating that a greater number of vocalic splits have occurred in Rejang than in any other known language of the Austronesian family. Among them, no fewer than nine splits of PMP *a were recorded together with _________________________________ *I would like to express appreciation to my Rejang assistants: Arma Zuazla of Curup (Musi); Pak Anwar of Padang Bendar (Pesisir); and Irlan Caya of Kebanagung (Kebanagung). I also wish to thank Dr. Zainubi Arbi, Dr. Zainal Bakar, and Dr. Amran Halim for invaluable assistance; and Dr. Robert A. Blust for insightful comments on an earlier draft of this article. All errors of fact and interpretation remain mine alone. **Rejang is spoken by around 200,000 people living in the Barisan Highlands in the provinces of Bengkulu and South Sumatra, Indonesia. There are four main dialect areas: Musi, Lebong,