Diphthongs?
It is sometimes claimed that Dusun has diphthongs such as /ai/ and /ou/ (Yabit, 1994; Aini, 2007, p. 11; 2012, p. 639). Such diphthongs only occur in word final position so, just as with Standard Malay (Clynes & Deterding, 2011) and Brunei Malay (Deterding & Ishamina, 2016), they can be regarded phonologically as a monophthong followed by a glide, /j/ or /w/. We prefer this analysis and therefore claim that phonologically Dusun has no diphthongs. The word-final monophthong-plus-glide combinations are illustrated in the words in Table 4.
Table 4. Words illustrating final monophthong plus glides
| /aw/ | /pulaw/ | pulau | 'island' | |
| /ow/ | /omow/ | omou | 'oil' | |
| /aj/ | /anaj/ | anai | 'ants' | |
| /oj/ | /bosoj/ | bosoi | 'waterfall' | |
| /uj/ | /sikuj/ | sikui | 'watermelon' |