THE ANALYSIS OF SEGMENTAL AND SUPRASEGMENTAL

ASPECTS OF INDONESIAN ENGLISH ACCENT

Composed to fulfill one of the requirements to obtain the Final

Examination of English Phonetics and Phonology at the
English Education Program, Language and Art Department,
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education,
The University of Jember

By:

DEZTYA AYU NING WINTY

150210401015

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

LANGUAGE AND ARTS DEPARTMENT
THE FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
THE UNIVERSITY OF JEMBER
2016
 Introduction

Phonetics is about sounds of language and it is a descriptive tool

necessary to the study of phonological aspects of a language. Phonology is about
sound systems of languages. There are many styles of speech for each individual
which is influenced by a variety of causes such as locality, early influences, and
social surroundings.

In this paper I want to analyze about both Segmental and Suprasegmental

aspects in English Phonetics and Phonology. This paper is focused on identifying
unique characteristics of Javanese speaker when producing English sound in
intermediate text level correctly according to segmental and suprasegmental
aspects. The speaker’s name is Azzilizza Febri as a student in Economic Faculty
in Jember University, she is 20 years old.

The first part of the discussion presents Segmental aspects are those which
can be segmented into distinct, discrete units, such as vowels and consonant .
Then continued by Suprasegmental aspects like rhythm, stress, and Intonation. As
a non-native speaker, the speaker has problems to pronounce some sounds.
Therefore, in this opportunity I will explain how that can happen to the Javanese
speaker in pronouncing English by give a text and let the speaker read aloud the
text.
 Methods

To analyze how Javanese speaker producing English sound from reading

an intermediate text level for intermediate student level and record the way the
speaker read. The speaker allowed reading the text loudly to make the recording
clear to analyze. After I get the recording from the Javanese speaker, I analyze
about the segmental and suprasegmental aspects according to the recording. Then,
I make the list of the words above about the wrong and the correct way to
pronounce sounds and analyze the factors that affect the way the speaker
pronounce in a wrong way.
 Discussion

To analyze how Javanese speaker producing English sound from reading

an intermediate text level for intermediate student level and record the way the
speaker read. The speaker allowed reading the text loudly to make the recording
clear to analyze. This is the text that the speaker read to analyze:

 Original text

Online Dating
Amanda turns on her computer and opens her e-mail. She has a new message.
She smiles. It is from Tall_and_Handsome34, a man Amanda met on
FindNew Love.com, an online dating website. She really hopes to find a new
love, and Tall_and_Handsome34 could be the right man for her!
Amanda reads the e-mail. Tall_and_Handsome34 asks Amanda if she would
like to meet in person on Friday. He tells her his real name is Mike.
Amanda considers meeting Mike. She only chats with Mike on the
computer, but she really likes him. He is smart and funny. They are the same
age, share many interests, and live in the same city. She does not know what
he looks like, but she enjoys the mystery of a blind date.
Source By: http://www.really-learn-english.com/english-short-stories-level-0 5-
story-07.html

 Phonetic Transcription text

ˈɒnˌlaɪn ˈdeɪtɪŋ
/əˈmændə tɜːnz ɒn hɜː kəmˈpjuːtər ænd ˈəʊpənz hɜː iːmeɪl. ʃiː hæz
ə njuːˈmɛsɪʤ. ʃiː smaɪlz. ɪt ɪz frɒm tɔːl_ænd_ˈhænsəm34, ə mæn
əˈmænd ə mɛt ɒn faɪnd ənjuː lʌv dɒt kɒm, ən ˈɒnˌlaɪn ˈdeɪtɪŋ ˈwɛbˌsaɪt. ʃiː
ˈrɪəli həʊps tuː faɪnd ənjuː lʌv, ænd tɔːl_ænd_ˈhænsəm34 kʊd biː ðə raɪt
mæn fɔː hɜː!/
/əˈmændə riːdz ði iːmeɪl. tɔːl_ænd_ˈhænsəm34 ɑːsks əˈmændə ɪf ʃiː wʊd
 laɪk tuː miːt ɪn ˈpɜːsn ɒn ˈfraɪdeɪ. hiː tɛlz hɜː hɪz rɪəl neɪm ɪz maɪk. /
/əˈmændə kənˈsɪdəz ˈmiːtɪŋ maɪk. ʃiː ˈəʊnli ʧæts wɪð maɪk ɒn ðə kə
mˈpjuːtə, bʌt ʃiː ˈrɪəli laɪks hɪm. hiː ɪz smɑːt ænd ˈfʌni. ðeɪɑː ðə seɪm eɪʤ,
ʃeə ˈmɛni ˈɪntrɪsts, ænd lɪv ɪn ðə seɪm ˈsɪti. ʃiː dʌz nɒt nəʊ wɒt hiː lʊks laɪk
, bʌt ʃiː ɪnˈʤɔɪz ðə ˈmɪstəri ɒv əblaɪnd deɪt./

Then, after I get the recording, the next step is to analyze the segmental
and suprasegmentals aspects from the non-native speaker.

The list of the wrong pronunciation words is listed below.

Wrong
No Word True Pronunciation
Pronunciation
1 Amanda /amanda/ /əˈmændə/
2 Computer /komputer/ /kəm’pju:tə/
3 Open /opən/ /əʊpən/
4 Smiles /smail/ /smaɪlz/
5 Met /mɜt/ /mɛt/
6 Love /lov/ /lʌv/
7 Considers /konsider/ /kənˈsɪdəz/
8 Could /cɒuld/ /kʊd/
9 Would /wɒuld/ /wʊd/
10 Person /person/ /pɜ:sn/
11 Share /seər/ /ʃeə/
12 Interest /intərest/ /ˈɪntrɪsts/
13 Live /laɪf/ /lɪv/
14 Blind date /blind deɪt/ /blaɪnd deɪt/
After, I make list the words above about the wrong and the correct way to
pronounce sounds she has many of mistakes to pronounce the words correctly
because the speaker has some of the difficulties to pronounce some of the words.
 A. Segmental Aspect

First, I want to analyze the segmental aspect in this report included vowel
and consonant sounds.

1. Vowel sounds

The speaker has mistakes when producing some vowel sounds as

listed below it is marked by the underlined letter.

No Word Wrong vowel sounds True vowel sounds

that produced
1 Computer /komputer/ /kəm’pju:tə/
2 Smiles /smail/ /smaɪlz/
3 Met /mɜt/ /mɛt/
5 Love /lov/ /lʌv/
6 Person /Person/ /pɜ:sn/
7 Live /laɪf/ /lɪv/
8 Blind date /blind deɪt/ /blaɪnd deɪt/

 Diphthongs

No Word Wrong dipthongs True diphtong

produced sounds
1 Open /opən/ /əʊpən/
2 Smiles /smail/ /smaɪlz/
3 Blind date /blind deɪt/ /blaɪnd deɪt/

2. Consonant sounds
The speaker has mistakes when producing some of the consonant
sounds as listed below it is marked by the underlined letter.
 No Word Wrong True Manner and Place of
Pronunciation Pronunciation Articulation
1 Computer /komputer/ /kəm’pju:tə/ Voiced palatal
approximants
2 Computer /komputer/ /kəm’pju:tə/ Voiceless velar plosive
3 Smiles /smail/ /smaɪlz/ Voiced alveolar fricative
4 Share /seər/ /ʃeə/ Voiceless postalveolar
fricative
5 Live /laɪf/ /lɪv/ Voiced labio-dental
fricative

Then, from the lists above we can see that the speaker has some
difficulties and mistakes from producing vowel and consonant sounds. I can
analyze why that can happen to the speaker because mostly Indonesian especially
Javanese make a sound according to the Indonesian Language. They are not really
familiar with English sounds, so they pronounce vowel sounds according to
Indonesian vowel sounds not English sound. This cases influenced by mother
tongue and the speaker lack of prior knowledge about how to pronounce English
sounds correctly. But, sometimes they understand to producing English sounds.

It is same as when Indonesian especially Javanese producing consonant

sound.they are not really familiar with /ʃ/ and /θ/ sounds, because those sounds are
rarely produced by Indonesian people. Indonesian usually producing sound /r/
clearly, that happens to the speaker when pronouncing some words that there are
/r/ sounds in the words.

Indonesian also not really familiar with the voiceless plosive /p/, /t/, and
/k/. Indonesian usually pronounce them sounds as a realization of /k/ in keep. It
depends on the habit of Indonesian people when pronounce /k/ sounds in word
kolam or kita. So,we can find that cases from the recording. That happen to word
computer, the speaker should pronounce the /k/ sounds with plosive to pronounce
the word correctly.
B. Suprasegmental Aspects

The suprasegmental aspect that I will discuss in this paper there are
three:

1. Intonation

From the recording, I can analyze that the speaker uses Indonesian
intonation in pronouncing the English Language, especially the speaker
pronouncing with Javanese Accent. We can hear the recording that the
speaker pronouncing the English Language with Javanese accent
clearly. So, for the English Language, it is heard monotone. Because
almost all of the words in the text pronounce by the same intonation.

But, in English Language intonation is the one factors that affect

the meaning of the word.

2. Stress

The are some differences from Indonesia language and English

Language. Including the word stress. Indonesia Language is a
syllable-timed language. However, English is a stress-timed language.
Because of that, Indonesian English sounds syllable-timed rather than
stress-timed.

According to Roach (2000), stress placement in English depends

on the following information: (1) the morphology of the words
(simple or complex words), (2) grammatical category of the words
(noun, verb), (3) the number of syllables, and (4) the phonological
structures of the syllables (weak or strong). A wrong placement of
stress on a word may cause ‘foreign accent’ or misunderstanding
between the speaker and the listener.

Incorrect stress patterns in many or certain words. I am not

really sure, but Indonesians tend to put the stress on the last
 syllable. When Indonesian talks, stress is not contrastive. Words
are always stressed on the last syllable. As like in the record by
the speaker

3. Rhythm

Rhythm is the regular occurrence of stressed syllable in a

connected speech. It is said that English has a stress-timed rhythm
which implies that stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively
regular intervals (Roach, 2000; Chun, 2000; Cruttenden, 1995).
Rhythm is most commonly discussed in terms of patterns of stressed
vs. unstressed syllables. According to Roach (2000) the stress-timed
rhythm theory states that the times from each stressed syllable to next
will tend to be the same, irrespective of the number of intervening
unstressed syllable.

English and Indonesian have different rhythm patterns. Often

Indonesians are not aware of this so they use the rhythm for
Indonesian when speaking English. Many do not even realize that
their English speech rhythm is affected by the rhythm of their mother
tongue, nor do they know that this interference makes their English
speech unnatural and sometimes difficult to understand.
 Conclusion

From the analysis above that I have analyzed before, we can

conclude that Indonesian has difficulties to pronounce the English
Language correctly. That marked by the way they pronounce some
English word with the wrong way. It happens to some vowel and
consonant sounds. The wrong pronunciation can cause by the mother
tongue of Indonesian who can not pronounce some sounds like /ʃ/ and
/θ/ sounds correctly, lack of prior knowledge about how to pronounce
some sounds correctly, and lack of experience in pronouncing English
sounds.
Indonesian needs more practice and knowledge about how to speak
English correctly. They can learn the correct intonation, rhythm, and the
word stress from hearing audio from native speaker, join some courses and
trying to deepen further the theories of phonology to improved their
English. Segmental and suprasegmental aspects are the most important
things in pronunciation. Because in English pronunciation mistakes will
lead to the meaning of the word be wrong. So, with correct pronunciation,
we can make other people understand what we want to say clearly.
At least, it is very important to introduce the pronunciation of the
English language correctly from the beginning to the English Learners
before it becomes a habit because the habit will be difficult to change. So,
I hope the English learners can able to master the ways of pronouncing the
English Language correctly, fluently,and accurately.
 References

Ogden, Richard. (2009). An Introduction to English Phonetics. Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press.

McMahon, Apri. (2002). An Introduction to English Phonology. Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press.

Roach, P. (2001). English Phonetic and Phonology: A Practical Course.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dardjowidjojo, S. (2009). English Phonetics & Phonology for Indonesians.

Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia.

Alfa, Tru, English Compared to Bahasa Indonesia. (accessed on 30th May

2016, retrieved from http://indodic.com/SimilaritiesDiffs.html)

Putra, Meizi, Indonesians’ Problems in Learning English, posted on 2nd

September 2015. (accessed on 30th May 2016, retrivied from
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/indonesians-problems learning-
english-meizi-m-nur-putra)