Illustrative Words for Vowels
Some words illustrating the occurrence of the six vowels of Malay are:
/i/ and /u/ both have centralised allophones that can be represented as [ɪ] and [ʊ] respectively in closed syllables, for example titik [titɪk] 'dot' and duduk [dudʊk] 'sit'. In Brunei Malay [ɪ] and [ʊ] may also occur in open final syllables, hence the reader's bersetuju [bɾ̩studʒʊ] 'agree' in the passage. Utterance-finally, high vowels often have mid or mid-low realisations, perhaps conveying pragmatic information (Poedjosoedarmo 1996), as in bilik /bilik/ 'room' pronounced as [bilek]. This also reflects influence from the three-vowel system of Brunei Malay.
In Standard Malay spoken in Brunei, the vowels /i/ and /u/ contrast fully with /e/ and /o/ respectively only in penultimate syllables: bila /bila/ 'when', bela /bela/ 'defend'; and dua /dua/ 'two', doa /doa/ 'prayer'. In final closed syllables, /u/ and /i/ can also have mid or even low realisations, so burung /buruŋ/ 'bird' can be [burʊŋ ~ buroŋ ~ burɒŋ], and giling /giliŋ/ 'mill' can be [gilɪŋ ~ gileŋ ~ gilɛŋ]. The mid vowels /e/ and /o/ on the other hand never have high allophones, thus geleng /geleŋ/ 'shake (one's head)' is [geleŋ ~ gelɛŋ] but never *[gelɪŋ], and similarly borong /boroŋ/ 'buy in bulk' is never *[borʊŋ].