Semelai has thirty-two consonant phonemes and twenty vowel phonemes. Consonants are discussed in §2.1.1 and vowels in §2.1.2. §2.2 provides a description of the syllable and the processes of syllabification. The structure of the syllable is central to the organisation of the phonology, and in turn an understanding of this structure provides the groundwork for the description of the structure of morphological processes in §3. The main discussion of segmental structure is contained in §2.3. The segmental and distributional possibilities of Semelai consonants illustrate that language-specific sequence structure constraints are not only necessary, but in fact reflect other morphological outcomes and the nature of the language's phonotactic system. §2.4 provides some comments on Malay loanwords and patterns of borrowing into Semelai. The chapter concludes with remarks on the comparative phonology of Aslian languages in §2.5.

2.1 Inventory of phonemes

2.1.1 Consonants

The five places of articulation are labial, alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal. Oral stops are produced at all five places of articulation. The three manners of articulation of oral stops are voiced, voiceless and voiceless aspirated. There is a corresponding series of nasal stops at each place of articulation of the oral stops.

Two places of articulation are distinguished for fricative segments (palatal and glottal); two for glides (labio-velar and palatal); and one for the rhotic and the lateral (both alveolar).