Bahasa Indonesia has a rich phonetic inventory that is very similar to that of English. Both Bahasa Indonesia and English have twenty-six letters, but most Indonesian letters have only one pronunciation. Most consonants (except most notably C and R) sound the same in Bahasa Indonesia and English. In Indonesian, the letter C sounds like a “ch” or [t͡ʃ] sound in English. For example, “cepat” (fast) is pronounced [t͡ʃ], [ɛ], [p], [a], [t]. The letter R in Bahasa Indonesia has no equivalent in English. The letter R in Indonesian is equivalent to the Spanish trill in rr (perro) [r]. For example, “orang” (person) is pronounced [o], [r], [a], [ŋ]. [ŋ] is pronounced like the “ni” in onion, which is pronounced [ʌ], [ŋ], [e], [n]. Many words have a voiceless glottal fricative at the end; for example, “sudah” (already) is pronounced [s], [ʊ], [d], [a], [h]. The letter K in Bahasa Indonesia has a full glottal stop, making the [?] sound like in “tidak” (no), which is pronounced [t], [i], [a], [?]. To better understand my language's sound system, I need to keep the above rules in mind. Additionally, I plan to work on being able to produce the trill needed for the [r] sound, as I am currently unable to. I have found daily practices and videos teaching methods to train myself to do the trill. To teach myself the difference between segments in my listening and speech, I have researched the rules governing length, stress, and pitch. In Bahasa Indonesia, no phone is spoken longer than another. Stress in Indonesian falls on the last syllable in two-syllable words and on the second-to-last syllable in three-syllable words. For example, in the word “makan” (food), the stress is placed on “kan”, with the stress in “makanan” also being placed on “kan”. Bahasa Indonesia is a non-tonal language, so emphasis is placed more through stress than pitch.
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