Phonological variation in the minangkabau language used in the city of Padang

This chapter is a dialectology study that investigates phonological variation in the Minangkabau language in the city of Padang. The Minangkabau language is one of the largest indigenous regional languages in Indonesia. It has been of linguists' interest, as evident from the large number of studies on the language. Despite the large number of linguistic studies on Minangkabau, this research is the first to look specifically at phonological and lexical variation in the variety of Minangkabau used in the city of Padang. The study aims to describe the language situation and to explain phonological variation of the Minangkabau language in the city of Padang. The approach taken is to produce language maps for the language use in Padang. The research involved field work and was carried out in 22 locations. The data was gathered using a questionnaire based on the Swadesh list of basic words plus a selection of cultural words. The researcher elicits lexical information from participants in each location and records the phonology for each word using IPA symbols. This means that the details of the local pronunciation of each word are identified there. The analysis involves the production of isogloss and isophones maps. Based on 284 language maps, one important finding is that the eight different phonological variations exhibited by the variety of Minangkabau are used in the city of Padang. These consist of variations of consonants, vowels, and diphthongs. The research also was able to identify a phonological distinction found in Kuranji sub-district. Such distinct feature exists most likely due to its history and its geographical location.