When I first started my studies in Bahasa Indonesian, I was grateful to see that Bahasa Indonesian uses the Latin alphabet and includes the same letters as in the English one that we use. As I have gotten deeper into my language studies and SDLC 105, I can more clearly determine some differences between English and Indonesian phonetics.
I studied the pronunciation of the alphabet a few weeks ago with my language instructor. Interestingly, I found that there are a lot of similarities between the German and Indonesian pronunciation, especially for vowels (my language instructor speaks German, so she noticed the similarities as well). Like German, Indonesian is much more consistent than English in how words are pronounced. While in English, the letter “a” can sound like “hat,” “hate,” "car," "carry," in Bahasa Indonesia, "a" is always [a] as in "bersama," unless the vowel is paired with another one as a diphthong, in which case there are a few different sound possibilities.
Indonesian intonation has some differences from English. When Indonesians ask questions, their tone tends to go down rather than up. I am paying careful attention to intonation when we listen to native speakers recorded for dialogues in our textbooks. I then try to replicate these tones in videos I record for speaking practice.
In researching the differences in phonetics between Indonesian and English, I came across some helpful articles that point out where native Indonesian learners struggle with English. As someone who is hoping to teach English in Indonesia, knowing these potential points of difficulty will allow me to best assist my students in improving their English skills. In addition to a much more complicated grammar system (articles, past tense, plural), some of the tricky parts for Indonesians include æ, ʌ, ɜ, v, θ, and ð because these are not in their alphabet and b. d, g, z, s, ʧ, and ʤ which are pronounced differently (download). As an instructor, I can anticipate that students may say "ket" for cat ket, "enkl" for ankle, "pool" for pull, and "dat" for that. Using context clues may sometimes be important for me to understand what my students are trying to say.
Vowels in Indonesia are pretty straight forward, but there are some other sounds in my target language that will give me trouble. For example, [ñ], which can be found in words like nyanyi [ñañi]. When I see words with the letters nya, I need to slow down and think about the part of the mouth I need to engage with to pronounce correctly. The hardest part of Indonesian for me is the letter r, because it is supposed to be trilled, and I still have not mastered the art of rolling my rs. I tried to learn last year when I was studying Italian since it is also used in this language, but I was not successful. Hopefully, with continued practice and an understanding of the anatomy of my mouth, I will be able to use my tongue and air stream to create this sound. It would probably give my Indonesian skills more credibility when I am in Indonesia.
Phonetics provides a helpful context for both learning and teaching Indonesian in relation to English. It helps to illuminate that while these two languages have the same alphabet and same symbols, there are still linguistic challenges that require language learners to alter their air stream in different ways. To acquire the ability to discriminate differentiated segment in my listening, I will ask for clarification when my language instructor pronounces words with different sounds. To produce these in my speech, I will be conscious of the helpful diagram on speech physiology, and keep trying (especially in the case of trills!).
Comments
Hi Casey, I thought it was pretty neat that you looked at both Indonesian and English to find similarities and differences. Your insight into phonetics and different points of inflections was awesome and I am sure it will help students!
Thanks, Rachel!
It is cool how you are noticing how hard it might be for Indonesian students to learn english because of the phonetic difference. Knowing how the phones are pronounced as we alter the air stream will be very helpful when you are helping the kids learn english. I think it might be a difficult task but I am sure you will do great!!! Good luck!!!