Abstract

As one of the local languages in Indonesia with a large number of speakers, Bahasa Minangkabau (BM) has its own phonological system that is different from the other local languages. This paper aims at describing the phonological system applicable in BM, including its vowels, diphthongs, and consonants along with their distributions. This study used a descriptive qualitative method with seven native Minangkabaunese speakers who live in the city of Padang as the participants. The data were collected using elicitation technique guided by the universality of the Swadesh list. The three prescribed tools—minimal pair, contrastive distribution, and complementary distribution—were used to define the phonemes. The results of the study show that BM has six vowels, eleven diphthongs, and nineteen consonants. In addition, the findings of this study also show that the vowels have free distribution, consonants can only be located at the beginning and end of syllables, and diphthongs can only be located in the middle and end of syllables.