Bengkulu Malay

Bengkulu Malay, or simply Bengkulu, is a Malayic language spoken primarily in Bengkulu Province, Indonesia, including Bengkulu City and surrounding areas, as well as parts of Pesisir Barat Regency in Lampung Province. It is the native language of the Bengkulu Malays and is more closely related to other Central Sumatra Malay varieties, such as Col, Jambi Malay, Palembang Malay, and Minangkabau, than to the Rejang language, which is also spoken in the province.

Bengkulu Malay
Bahaso Bengkulu
Region	Bengkulu Province, Sumatra
Ethnicity	Bengkulu Malays
Native speakers	66,000[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (disputed) Malayic South Barisan Malay Bengkulu Malay
Writing system	Latin, Jawi, and Rejang
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bke (merged into pse in 2008) [2]
Linguist List	pse-ben Bengkulu, Bencoolen, Bengkulan
Glottolog	beng1290
Linguasphere	33-AFA-du
Areas where Bengkulu Malay is a majority   Areas where Bengkulu Malay is a significant minority
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Phonology

Bengkulu is written in the Latin, Jawi, and sometimes in Rejang scripts.

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩	tɕ ⟨c⟩	k ⟨k⟩	ʔ ⟨k⟩ (coda)
	voiced	b ⟨b⟩	d ⟨d⟩	dʑ ⟨j⟩	ɡ ⟨g⟩
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩	ɲ ⟨ny⟩, ⟨n⟩ (before c/j)	ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Fricative			s ⟨s⟩	ɕ ⟨si⟩		(h ⟨h⟩) (coda)
Lateral			l ⟨l⟩
Tap			ɾ ⟨r⟩
Semivowel				j ⟨y⟩	w ⟨w⟩

The letters ⟨f⟩, ⟨sy⟩, ⟨v⟩ and ⟨z⟩ are used in loanwords from Indonesian.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨i⟩		u ⟨u⟩
Middle	ɛ ⟨e/é⟩	ə ⟨e⟩	ɔ ⟨o⟩
Open	a~ɑ ⟨a⟩

Bengkulu diphthongs are ⟨ai⟩, ⟨au⟩.